The Analyst says the depth of the tourists' batting unit and variety of their bowling attack should see them continue their remarkable transformation
A year ago, England arrived at the World Cup in complete chaos.
The one-day captain, Alastair Cook, had been sacked, as Eoin Morgan was handed the reigns with around two weeks to go before the first match.
They had no idea who made up their best side, never mind what the batting order was.
It is incredible to think now that Ben Stokes wasn’t even in the squad, though to be fair to the selectors he didn’t deserve to be after his efforts in Sri Lanka previously.
England played one-day cricket belonging to the 1990s and were subsequently put out of their misery well before the knock-out stages.
Now, a complete change of attitude has effected a dramatic transformation.
The players have been liberated from the shackles of the previous regime.
As a result, England have won five of their last six one-day series, including beating World Cup finalists New Zealand at home and Pakistan away.
From being a side who barely managed to scrape 300 on occasion, they have now passed 350 three times and notched their first ever total of over 400.
The lowest strike rate of any batsman since their rejuvenation is James Taylor’s 86.
Eoin Morgan has struck 24 sixes in that time, and every player apart from Steven Finn and Reece Topley – who are both bowlers – has cleared the ropes at least once.
England are now playing one-day cricket of the future rather than the past.
That trend is set to continue in this series in South Africa.
The batting order wields withering power from Alex Hales and Jason Roy up front, although Roy did suffer a back spasm on Monday and is a slight doubt for Wednesday’s opener in Bloemfontein.
With an engine room of Joe Root, Morgan and Taylor and the turbo thrust of Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes at the rear, it is a testament to England’s strength in depth that a batsman as talented as Jonny Bairstow will struggle to get in the side.
The South African bowlers, therefore, face a potential hiding.
The pitches are good, the grounds not large and the air – particularly on the Highveld, where four of the seven matches are being played – is thin.
The home side are still without the injured Dale Steyn, and overworked pacemen Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada are likely to sit out some of the games – a wise decision given the likely onslaught.
Scoring could be very high indeed.
South Africa do of course have some amazing strikers of their own in the brilliant, totally ambidextrous AB de Villiers who is the top-ranked ODI batsman in the world, the dashing Hashim Amla, the destructive left-hander David Miller and others.
England will try to counter these strongmen by coming at them from different angles.
Their two left-arm seamers in David Willey and Reece Topley both have clever changes of pace and alternate over and round the wicket.
They also have a couple of right-armers to call upon with Stuart Broad back in the mix after Finn’s injury, as well as the off-spin of Moeen Ali and a leggie in Adil Rashid who is joining the squad after a successful stint in the Big Bash.
There are five ODIs followed by two T20s as a build-up to the World T20 in March.
England have more depth with the bat and more variety with the ball.
But whoever does the bowling in this series should be on triple pay and eligible for free counselling.
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