Liam Dawson to face South Africa

Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings will open the innings for England with the returning Ballance taking the No.3 spot ahead of captain Joe Root, who will come in at No.4, followed by Bairstow and Stokes.

England paceman Stuart Broad is confident he has recovered from a heel injury and is fit enough to play in the opening Test against South Africa at Lord’s starting today, in what will be Joe Root’s coronation as captain.

“You just feel like it is your day so you have to make the most of it”. I think this will be a very good summer for England – they will blow Windies away and maybe South Africa too.

The Yorkshireman shared a fifth-wicket stand of 114 with Ben Stokes (56) after Philander (three for 28) had put England in trouble at 17 for two and then 76 for four in the first Investec Test.

Is he ready for the armchair critics, though?

“I know the sort of person he is, and I am sure he is determined to show everyone he is capable of performing at this level”.

Instead, Root risks uncorking what some predict may be a rather a boring vintage by insisting on the recall of his Yorkshire team-mate Gary Ballance, who has been twice discarded as sub-standard, instead of Middlesex’s Dawid Malan or the promising Surrey opener Mark Stoneman.

“One of the things is to be quite natural in terms of the way I will go about things. The way we came out is something we are not very proud of as a bowling unit”, he said.

“He is that sort of character”.

Opener Cook, who retains his place, is back in the ranks for the first time since 2012.

“A lot of people asked questions about the last time he played for England”, said Root. Giving England’s most risky batsman two lives before he had 20 runs up on the first morning of the series verged on criminal negligence – more of which later.

Root, who won the toss on a glorious day, responded to his team’s travails and went on to complete his century in the early evening with a swept three off Keshav Maharaj in a total of 209 for five.

Root told Sky Sports he had felt “in a bit of a dreamworld” and later, talking to reporters, he accepted he could hardly have written a better script for himself. Both are very technically correct batsmen who also captained England for a long period. “I rode my luck. but it just seemed to be one of those days”. But bizarrely for a spinner, his front foot was over the line too and England were nearly in complete control. Play is scheduled to start at 11h00 local time.

About 27-year-old left-hander Gary “In terms of Gary I look at how he has performed this year and the number of runs he has scored and he has been phenomenal”.

Cape Town – Proteas bowler, Vernon Philander, says there are “no excuses” for the ill-disciplined bowling performance on day one of the first Test match against England at Lord’s on Thursday.