England defeated Pakistan 3-1 in their most recent one-day series – Roy scoring a century as they won the final match by 84 runs. The form of Alex Hales is a big worry for England going into the first game with the opener so far struggling with the seaming conditions in South Africa. England won a home series over World Cup finalist New Zealand, lost narrowly to Australia, but then was convincing in a 3-1 victory over Pakistan in United Arab Emirates.
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South Africa’s U19 side, the 2014 champions, were humiliated by rank minnows and desert neighbours Namibia – many “towns” in that sparsely-populated country won’t even have the luxury of a cricket pitch, never mind ground – at the ICC World Cup in Bangladesh, coming hot on the heels of their opening-game loss to the host nation.
“If he does play, he will be in great nick”.
“We have good batsmen and we have good bowlers and I think we have all bases covered”.
“He is a really good player – and yes, someone to have a look at”.
Considering how effortlessly the current England side have subdued SA “A” on two occasions, you can only wince when you try to imagine certain of the South African franchises trying their luck against them; they’d probably be sliced and diced quite mercilessly. His place at the top of the order is likely to be filled by Moeen Ali, which is not the worst rejig imaginable given that Ben Stokes’ availability after injury in the UAE would otherwise create a logjam of stroke-makers in the lower-middle order.
De Villiers will not be getting ahead of himself then, but England will soon know if he is in form. “Training with him every day is, I assume, like training with AB”.
The five-match one-day series and two Twenty20 games against South Africa have added significance beyond this tour, too, with the World Twenty20 around the corner. “I must have variations – googlies, sliders whatever it is to get wickets”.
South Africa’s most recent One Day International series was away, against India before a Test series where they were crushed. “We need to broaden our fast bowling base for this series”.
“The other is the fact we have pushed our boundaries over the last eight months we have been together, [and it] is becoming the norm”.
SOUTH AFRICA: AB de Villiers (captain), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock (wkt), Marchant de Lange, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, David Wiese.
“The confidence from a one-day cricket point of view has been good”, he said.
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England: Hales, Roy, Root, Morgan (capt), Stokes, Buttler (wkt), Moeen, Rashid, Jordan, Willey, Topley.
