England have a great opportunity to have a brilliant 2016. They play 10 Tests in conditions that perfectly suit their game before going to the sub-continent next winter.
England will always struggle in the sub-continent because they do not have a mystery spinner but in South African and English conditions they are so strong.
So they have a great chance to have a hugely successful 2016 and their goal should be to win the next 10 Test matches. It rarely happens and they probably will not do it but it should be their target.
Moeen Ali had the best game of his England career in Durban
Imagine how confident they will feel if they go to the sub-continent having won 10 Tests out of 10. Aim high.
They looked very united in Durban. They picked players with plenty to prove so that was good motivation for all involved.
Sometimes you worry it means too much for them but they all approached the match in the right way, particularly Nick Compton. He was the rock of the innings. If he can continue with that mindset then he could still have a decent Test career. His challenge will come when he has had a couple of low scores.
He is so intense and desperate to establish himself in the side and that amount of pressure on yourself can be tiring. But he knows that and he seems to find a way to score runs. He is not worried about any of the South African bowlers, he played them pretty well in Durban so he has just got to repeat that same mentality in Cape Town.
If we can have two rocks in the top three in Compton and Alastair Cook it will allow the strokeplayers to go out and play their natural games.
Steven Finn was part of a dominant bowling attack
We have to be careful. This England side are on the verge of being a very good team. But we have seen in the past how one week they look like challenging the best in the world, only to be hammered the next.
Consistency has been a real issue but when you play a South African side that does not offer any mystery then inconsistency should not come into.
The up and down performances have generally happened when England have faced bowlers with real pace like Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson, mystery spin from someone like Yasir Shah, or unorthodox conditions.
But in South Africa, where the conditions are consistent, and England are facing the same type of bowlers they are used to at home, then inconsistency should not be an issue.
They might lose a game but it should not be by a huge margin. England look like the better side. They have all the areas covered and this is a really good opportunity for a young developing side to taste some success overseas.
James Taylor is batting beautifully at the moment
The best thing about Durban was that without James Anderson we saw a set of players who could play together for a very long time. There is nobody nearing the end. There are a few at the start, a couple in the middle and some in the final years of their careers but not close to retirement.
It was a vision of an England team I can see being around for a while.
Moeen Ali is so dangerous when his team are ahead in the game and there is something in the pitch. Every time the team has made a decent score he does a job. But he struggles when the team does not bat well enough and he has to drag the side back into the game. He is not that type of off-spinner just yet.
Cook managed his bowlers well in Durban, he has good options and South Africa look like a side that if England can win day one in Cape Town then it will be 2-0 in the series.
South Africa have to win day one. They are struggling for leadership and direction. When I played against South Africa you always knew they had inner strength. But there does not appear to be any backbone to the side.
They have a great player in AB De Villiers but without Dale Steyn it is probably the weakest South Africa team I have seen in my time play against England.
AB De Villiers has the weight of South Africa on his shoulders
There are no excuses for England against this South Africa side. There is nothing in the opposiiton that you can’t prepare for, Steyn is out injured and South Africa are there for taking. Cook will realise they have to win this series after the start they have had and the state of the opposition.
Cook will be quietly confident his bowlers will not have bad days. Broad, Anderson and Finn have bowled a lot of overs in Test cricket. They are not going to have too many bad days and the way South Africa are batting without confidence points to one winner at the moment.
It only changes if AB whacks a massive hundred. He could do it but there is a lot of pressure on him because I can’t see anyone else doing it. When you are in a situation where one individual has to have a wonder series for his team to win, it rarely happen. For years the West Indies had Brian Lara and you always thought if he did something amazing they would win. But they did not win many games because he had nothing around him.
For South Africa to beat England the players we do not know much about have to do what Compton, James Taylor and Jonny Bairstow did in Durban. Play well and support the senior players.
Most of England’s inexperienced players proved they belong at this. That is what South Africa’s new players have to do so by the end of the series we know their names for the right reasons, not the wrong.
That comes down to Hashim Amla and the coach installing some inner confidence. It is hard but as a leadership team that is how you are judged. Can you make players play to a better level and believe in themselves? From what I have seen from South Africa in India and Durban there is a lack of direction and confidence coming from the leadership group.
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