South Africa will be keen to avenge a Test series defeat when they meet England in five one-day internationals, starting at the Mangaung Oval tomorrow.
“There are no soft series or less important series, they are all important, particularly coming off a Test series loss,” said South African coach Russell Domingo.
Both teams will be looking to build on recent good results following disappointing campaigns in the 2015 Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
South Africa showed patchy form in the World Cup but reached the semi-finals, where they were beaten by New Zealand. Since then, they have won a home series against the Black Caps and an away series in India.
England had a poor World Cup, failing to reach the knock-out stage after losing all their matches against other Test nations. But they then beat New Zealand 3-2 in a home series, lost by the same margin against Australia and beat Pakistan 3-1 in the United Arab Emirates.
Several of England’s leading one-day players did not appear in the recent Test series against South Africa, including wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler, who hit England’s fastest one-day century off 46 balls in the series decider against Pakistan in Dubai.
Other new faces include captain Eoin Morgan, opening batsman Jason Roy and bowlers Reece Topley, Chris Jordan, David Willey and Adil Rashid, who all had some success in England’s comfortable win in a warm-up match against South Africa A in Kimberley on Saturday.
South Africa’s one-day specialists include hard-hitting left-handed batsmen David Miller and Rilee Rossouw, all-rounder Farhaan Behardien and leg-spinner Imran Tahir.
South African captain AB de Villiers, the world’s number one-ranked one-day international batsman, will hope for a return to form after making three ducks in his last three Test innings against England.
South Africa added fast bowler Marchant de Lange to their squad following the injury-forced withdrawal of Dale Steyn and the unavailability through injury for the first match of Kyle Abbott.
“Marchant gives us more options with our fast bowlers because there is no Steyn, no (Vernon) Philander, no Kyle Abbott,” said Domingo, who expressed concern about the workload of Morne Morkel and new star Kagiso Rabada.
Meanwhile, South Africa have called all-rounder David Wiese. Wiese replaced Albie Morkel, who was added to the squad on Sunday but has since been laid low by back spasms and will take no part in the five-match series, Cricket South Africa said yesterday.
Wiese, 30, made his ODI debut against New Zealand last August and played all three matches of that series.
The medium-pace bowler and destructive lower-order batsman has also featured in 12 Twenty20 internationals.
Wiese played for South Africa A against England in a warm-up fixture in Kimberley on Saturday, taking 2-73 in 10 overs and scoring a quickfire 28.
England opener Jason Roy suffered a back spasm on Monday and the touring side will delay naming their team to wait for a fitness assessment, the BBC reported.
James Taylor, who made 116 against South Africa A, or Moeen Ali could take Roy’s place at the top of the order.
Squads:
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.
England: Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler (wkt), Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Taylor, Reece Topley, David Willey, Chris Woakes.
Fixtures:
Wednesday : Bloemfontein
Saturday: Port Elizabeth
Tuesday: Centurion
Friday: , Johannesburg
Sunday: 14, Cape Town