Alastair Cook called on his England team to press home their advantage against a South African side who have turned to former captain Graeme Smith in a desperate attempt to avert a crisis.
With thousands of England fans set to make one of the iconic grounds in world cricket feel like a home venue for Cook’s men, this is a great opportunity to put themselves in a virtually impregnable position as they head to the Highveld for the final two Tests in Johannesburg and Pretoria.
England thrashed the hosts in Durban
“The word consistency has already come up and 2015 was a year where we were up and down a lot,” said Cook. “It was great to finish with a performance like that [in Durban], a real relentless performance from pretty much ball one. Can we do it again? Can we have an Edgbaston, Trent Bridge fortnight and can we do that in Durban and Cape Town? Have we as a side learnt. Can we be more consistent and harder to beat? We will see.
“It will be really disappointing if we can’t back up our performances. If South Africa play out of their skin and we hit the same standards then I’ll be happy. In Durban, we set a benchmark. To be 1-0 up in a series is fantastic, to be 2-0 even better.”
James Anderson, who took eight wickets in his only Test at Newlands five years ago, took a full part in net practice and is set to return to the side in place of Chris Woakes, strengthening Cook’s hand against a batting line-up with a top score of 214 in their last 10 innings.
James Anderson is back to full fitness
“You want your best players playing. If he’s fit and ready and confident, then he’ll be opening the bowling,” said Cook. “But we have to make sure we’re right. We don’t want to have an injury caused that we could have prevented. Obviously there will be a bit of a risk about it. We have to be really careful with heart and head. He’s desperate to play but we just have to make sure it’s the right decision for him.”
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What has not helped Anderson is the tight scheduling of this series. The same for Dale Steyn. The 48-hour gap between Tests was not enough time for Steyn’s shoulder injury to heal meaning Kagiso Rabada, the highly rated 20-year-old fast bowler, will play his first home Test for South Africa.
It is an itinerary that is not popular with either side. “The first I found out was when the schedules were released,” Cook said. “A two-day turnaround isn’t great for the players. If we’d bowled 140 overs in the dirt in Durban and then had a two-day turnaround in 40 degrees, which it has been here, that’s a gruelling ask to keep the standards up. Hopefully, this is just a one-off and people see sense that you need a couple more days between Tests.”
The fast turn-around between Tests is a cause for concern for Alastair Cook
For Cook, those are pretty forthright comments. But they are not quite as piercing as the ones from Smith during the Durban Test when he used his position as a commentator to raise the issue of problems behind the scenes within the South African camp.
It appears AB de Villiers’ retirement talk has sparked change with Quinton de Kock to take over his keeping role to free him up to concentrate on batting and Smith joining the set up to add some needed leadership.
It is understood the senior batters were not happy with the fact they did not have a specialist coach to turn to, unlike the tailenders with Lance Klusener brought in to help their batting. During the Durban Test Smith revealed on air how he had not had a single phone call with his successor Hashim Amla, so you wonder how much he was involved in the decision to bring him back in. But it is a smart move. Smith finished off Nasser Hussain, Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss. He knows how to beat England and it is inconceivable to think he will not be acting as a motivational coach rather than giving batting technique tips.
Graeme Smith (right) knows how to beat England
“To get Graeme on board now, Graeme being the quality cricketer that he is, fits the role perfectly,” said Amla. “Graeme has got a good know-how about Test cricket and that’s what Test cricket is about. It’s about know-how, having a feel for the game and we’ve got a lot of youngsters that can draw on that.”
It is so long since England won a Test in Cape Town that Nick Compton’s grandfather, Denis, hit two half-centuries in their 1957 victory. No England batsman has made a hundred here since Mike Smith in 1964-65, when Geoffrey Boycott was on his first tour.
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