Two teams battling to find form in red-ball cricket are set to go head-to-head as England face South Africa in a four-match Test series starting on Boxing Day.
England won just one of their four Test series this year but will be optimistic of kick-starting their 2020 with victory over a South African side who have lost five Tests on the bounce.
The series is South Africa’s first under new head coach Mark Boucher and England’s second under Chris Silverwood, who replaced Trevor Bayliss following last summer’s drawn Ashes series.
South Africa v England Test schedule
First Test: Supersport Park, Centurion (26-30 December)
Second Test: Newlands, Cape Town (3-7 January)
Third Test: St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth (16-20 January)
Fourth Test: New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg (24-28 January)
South Africa
Having lost five consecutive Tests, South Africa arguably go into this home series as the slight underdogs. The Proteas were beaten by Sri Lanka at the start of 2019 before suffering a demoralising defeat to Virat Kohli’s India later in the year.
To say South Africa are a team in transition would be an understatement; they have six new faces in their squad to face England, while star bowler Vernon Philander has confirmed he will hang up his boots following the series.
It will be intriguing to see whether head coach Boucher, batting coach Jacques Kallis and director of cricket Graeme Smith – all legends of the game – are able to effect a squad lacking experience and confidence.
England
While England also come into the series in poor form – they lost to New Zealand last month and were unable to win back the urn from Australia in the summer – they have been playing a higher standard of cricket than South Africa.
It will inevitably take time for Silverwood to implement significant changes to a squad that had stagnated under Bayliss, but there have been some promising signs.
Joe Root has stressed the importance of producing bigger scores and their recent performances with the bat suggest the message is finally getting through – England scored over 450 in the final New Zealand Test and did the same in their second warm-up match ahead of the South Africa tour.
The bowlers toiled away against the impressive Black Caps and the return of James Anderson – England’s record wicket-taker has been absent since the first Ashes Test in August – is a major boost.
An outbreak of illness has provided cause for concern ahead of the opening Test in Centurion but Jofra Archer, Stuart Broad and Jack Leach have all put themselves back into contention by returning to training this week.
World Cup and Ashes hero Ben Stokes is expected to miss the first Test, however, after his father was admitted to hospital in South Africa on Tuesday due to a serious illness.
Leading run-scorer: Joe Root (England)
The form of Joe Root has been the subject of much debate over the past six months, but England’s skipper looked back to his best as he made a stunning double century in the second Test against New Zealand in November.
Root made a couple of changes to his set-up ahead of that series and initially appeared to be struggling, but he followed his brilliant performance in Hamilton with another fluent innings in England’s first warm-up match in South Africa.
England opener Rory Burns and South Africa counterpart Dean Elgar should also enjoy productive series but Root – when at his best – is a class above and can lead from the front over the next six weeks.
Leading wicket-taker: Vernon Philander (South Africa)
It would be fitting and not particularly surprising if Vernon Philander finished his South Africa career with another decisive string of performances in a Test series.
The 34-year-old has been a wonderful servant to his country and goes into the England series with 261 wickets from 97 matches.
Philander will face competition from Jofra Archer, who struggled in New Zealand but should find conditions in South Africa more to his liking, the legendary James Anderson and South Africa’s impressive paceman Kagiso Rabada.
Series result: South Africa 1-2 England
England’s struggles in red-ball cricket over the past year have been well documented, but a series against this South African side appears to be the perfect chance for Chris Silverwood to kick-start his reign as head coach and for the tourists to finally enjoy some success away from home.
While England were beaten by New Zealand and held to a draw by Australia, they should find things a little easier against South Africa, who themselves are enduring a poor run and have recently made huge changes to their backroom team.
The South African team will certainly benefit from the experience and talent of Boucher, Kallis and Smith, but the struggling Proteas appear to be there for the taking.
With the outbreak of illness and the shock news regarding Stokes’ father, England’s preparations could hardly have gone any worse but they can recover from what would be a forgivable slow start to triumph in this series.
