South Africa won the first Test at Lord’s by an innings and 12 runs, before England, led by captain Ben Stokes, defeated the tourists by an innings and 85 runs at Old Trafford.
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In the final Test, both teams lost a key member of their middle order, with England’s Jonny Bairstow suffering a strange foot injury while playing golf and South Africa’s Rassie van der Dussen fractured a finger.
England and South Africa, both teams’ seam attack is world class, and for the third Test it is likely that the bat – and who can score runs in the first innings – will decide the outcome.
Ben Duckett has been brought into the squad by England to replace Bairstow, but with Harry Brook already in place, the latter could be given his Test debut, especially when he made 170 balls for the England Lions. Scored 140 runs.
Maybe Brooke can replace already-opener Alex Lees.
“I think to be honest, I’ll be able to bat anywhere,” Brooke told reporters. “But I like to bat five. If you talk to other people about batting they’ll probably say, ‘I don’t like it because I like to go straight out there.'”
“But I like to come in (from the field) and get some rest.”
South Africa will have to find a replacement for van der Dussen, whose injury has likely given Aiden Markram a reprieve. It looks to be a straight choice between Ryan Rickelton and Khaya Zondo.
“Obviously we’re going to have to replace Rassie with someone else, so it’s a definite change,” said captain Dean Elgar.
“But is that the only change, we will have to see. It is we need runs from the middle order and they have let us down a lot. People already know that.”
The other question for the visitors is whether to retain the two spinners or return to the four-pronged seam attack that served them so well at Lord’s.
The match between England and South Africa at The Oval has been interesting in the past as well. South Africa’s only win in 15 matches at The Oval was in 2012, when they claimed a win by an innings and 12 runs.