Woakes in for England test

And the stop-start nature of the day was allowing Steyn to ease back into his first competitive match after injury with regular breaks, which was useful given South Africa’s decision to go into the match with just four specialist bowlers, one of them a spinner.

Delighted by his side’s last warm-up game victory, England coach Trevor Bayliss believes that his side are fully prepared and show good sign ahead of the upcoming Test series against South Africa. They have to rise from the dead and put up a courageous performance on the bowling-friendly South African wickets.

“Nick Compton is back in the side trying to rebuild a career, Alex Hales is untried in test cricket and James Taylor has never played in such bouncy, quick conditions”. In nine Test series’ since 1994 between these two so far, a team has won the series by a margin of more than one Test on just a single occasion.

Finding a replacement for all-rounder Jacques Kallis, who retired in 2013, was always likely to be hard, but the Proteas have also struggled at the top of the order since former captain Graeme Smith quit the following year. The skipper, Hashim Amla being in bad form and looking to improve, he’ll need some time out in the middle to settle down and do so first. “The guys are used to it and are able to handle the pressure”, Amla said. Dean Elgar, Stiaan van Zyl and Temba Bavuma will occupy places in the top six, none of whom averages over 35 in Test cricket. They have suffered injuries to Steyn, although he is fit again now, and to Vernon Philander, who is not.

“The way Dale has been bowling in the nets has been unbelievable”, Amla said. It has been a gruelling schedule, unsustainable in the long term, but this year will be remembered as one of triumph and disaster for England. “We’re really glad to have him back”. South Africa’s vulnerability at home can give England an edge in the series opines Suraj Choudhari.

Aside from the Ashes, England against South Africa is about as mouth-watering a clash you can get in Test cricket. By the end of this series, incidentally, England will have completed no fewer than 17 Tests since the start of April, a condensed run of matches surely unprecedented.

England lost their recent trial by spin against Pakistan in the UAE but they have a case for saying they were unlucky to go down 2-0.

Both teams are coming off a whitewash defeating test cricket. It is an attack with pace but a lot will depend on Broad’s ability to make inroads with the new ball. Alex Hales, 3. Nick Compton, 4.

Despite being ranked fifth in the world, England are a young, exciting team on the up.

Speaking on Christmas Day, also his 31st birthday, Cook said: “Chris is going to play”.

“Everyone has scored some runs and taken some wickets so, preparation-wise, it’s as good as we could have hoped for getting ready to play the number one team in the world”.