Jacques Kallis has an enviable Test record but he has done less well in Tests in England. Photograph: Harry Engels/Getty Images
It is the series that could rescue a wretched summer. The two best teams in the world ? when playing beyond the subcontinent ? are about to meet and no one knows who will win.
England are on an exciting journey, galloping up the various rankings and exploring how good they can be. The hope is that they have yet to peak. South Africa have been hovering at the summit for a while. Some of their players are heading for their last hurrah; half of the squad are over 30.
There are impediments to this most eagerly anticipated series. There is the foul weather; the rain needs to stop. Also there is frustration that this is only a three-match series. Blame the Olympics if feeling charitable, otherwise snarl at the greed of the administrators who sanctioned the soggy, one-sided ODI series against the Australians. More poignantly, in the build-up to the first Test there has been the freakish accident that has led to the retirement of Mark Boucher and grave concerns about his eyesight.
This incident has understandably stunned the South Africa squad. Their response has been open and mature. Graeme Smith, Boucher's captain for the past nine years, and Jacques Kallis, a colleague and friend for even longer, have been devastated. But it would be in character if Boucher's terrible misfortune galvanises even further a squad that was already sternly determined to prevail in this series.
"We're trying to respect what he's given us and hopefully play with him in our hearts and minds," said Smith after the extent of the damage to Boucher's left eye had been established. "He's created a legacy for a lot of us to be a part of and to look up to. We need to respect what he's done for our country and be proud of that.
"We are people first and cricketers second, so there's naturally going to be emotion around this subject. But we're a very professional team and Mark is very adamant that our focus needs to be on playing cricket and doing well. We need to deal with the emotion initially and build to the first Test. That's our goal and that's how Mark Boucher would have played the game."
Even without Boucher, South Africa will be formidable opponents. The expectation is that the vice-captain, AB de Villiers, will take the gloves in the Oval Test rather than the wicketkeeping replacement, Thami Tsolekile, a task De Villiers has completed three times before. This may ? but only may ? hinder De Villiers the batsman; the South Africans will certainly miss the terrier tenacity and tactical nous of Boucher behind the stumps. But his absence does not necessarily weaken the batting. The likelihood, if De Villiers keeps wicket, is that South Africa will replace Boucher with another batsman, JP Duminy.
Not that South Africa's batting is weak. Smith, De Villiers and Hashim Amla are in the top rank, all vastly experienced, all averaging in the late 40s in Test cricket. And then there is Kallis. It may be time for us all to salute one of the greatest cricketers of any era. At 36 years of age, this may be his last Test tour of England.
Somehow the genius of Kallis is seldom fully appreciated. He is self-effacing, sometimes he seems self-absorbed; he bats in a cocoon, yet so have most of the great players. His technical purity is unrivalled and a glimpse of him at Taunton last week suggested that his powers have not diminished. Maybe classical orthodoxy is not the ultimate turn-on but here is a reminder of Kallis's staggering figures after 152 Tests for South Africa: 12,379 runs at 56 and 276 wickets at 32. There remains one glitch, which he may wish to correct: in Test cricket in England, he averages a mere 29 with the bat.
Oddly enough, the other champion in the South Africa side, Dale Steyn, has also performed less well in England than elsewhere: he takes his wickets at 34 here compared with an overall ? and ominous ? cost of 23 throughout a career in which he has snaffled 272 victims in just 54 Tests. There will be comparisons?between Steyn and Jimmy?Anderson. Steyn is a little quicker and a little more expensive since he is so impatient for those wickets. He gets them at a phenomenal rate (one every 40 balls). Both are wizards when the ball is swinging.
The one area in which England may claim superiority is in spin-bowling. Imran Tahir, surely the most ubiquitous cricketer of all time, may be older than Graeme Swann, but he is not so experienced at this level. He is, however, a streaky, impetuous bowler, who can bamboozle lower-order batsmen very?quickly. Moreover, since South Africa have the buffer of Kallis as a fourth pace-bowler, they are not so dependent upon their spinner bowling as many overs as England are with their four-man attack.
England name their squad on Sunday morning and selecting it must have been a straightforward operation. Ravi Bopara will surely replace Jonny Bairstow and the rotation policy will be shelved for a while. The four frontline pacemen will all be there and on Wednesday evening/Thursday morning the agonising will have to stop.
Steven Finn has bowled so well recently ? albeit with a white ball ? that it must be very tempting to pick him in the final XI. But to have him in the side requires the dropping of Tim Bresnan, the man of the match at Trent Bridge two Tests ago, or, just conceivably, Stuart Broad. The selectors and management will say "it's a nice position to be in", but they may not feel that way come Wednesday. They have to remember to pick the best team, not the fairest, but in their eyes that may still leave Finn on the sidelines.
England (probable): Strauss, Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Bopara, Prior, Bresnan, Broad, Swann, Anderson
South Africa (probable): Smith, Peterson, Amla, Kallis,?De Villiers, Rudolph, Duminy, Steyn, Philander, Morkel, Tahir
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/jul/14/south-africa-england-test-series
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