England's emerging team will be tested by a strong South Africa, says the Analyst - these two matches come at a good time in their development
England begin their preparations for the World T20 in good heart.
Since the summer of 2014 they have played six T20 internationals and won all of them (one after a super over).
This is a significant achievement as the slap-bang-wallop nature of such contests – that can be decided in one six-ball blitz – means consistency is hard to attain.
Interestingly, England won all these games batting first. This is their usual preference, which will no doubt continue in Cape Town on Friday if Eoin Morgan wins the toss.
The tourists have an outstanding battalion of hitters and clearly back themselves to wallop a monumental score before relying on their bowlers to restrict the opposition to less.
In the World T20, on dry Indian pitches that deteriorate as the match wears on, it is a strategy that will probably work well.
But it is a riskier approach in these two T20 matches against South Africa.
Firstly, the pitches won’t deteriorate noticeably. Secondly, South Africa have an equally-destructive and possibly more calculating batting line up.
Thirdly, England are still rotating bowlers to find out what is their best combination. Bowling is definitely their weaker suit and defending anything less than eight an over is a struggle.
Only one of those six successive victories was achieved with a score of under 160 and that match was tied (and decided by the super over).
There is good stability in this England unit and they are likely to use the same top six that performed strongly in the one-day series in South Africa.
Jason Roy and Alex Hales are ultra aggressive as an opening pair.
Hales reeled off four fifties and a hundred in that series (before adding a big-hitting 78 in the warm-up game in Paarl on Wednesday night).
Joe Root will bat at three and, though there will be more normality and orthodoxy to his batting, he still has an impressive T20I strike rate of 122.
Then the big guns – Jos Buttler, Morgan and Ben Stokes – follow, probably in that order. All three hit the ball ferociously and a long way. The stands will be a hard-hat area.
England average eight sixes an innings in those recent T20 victories. Morgan struck five from 13 balls on Wednesday night and seems to have his timing back.
The batsmen will need to be on song because the bowlers look vulnerable.
England have no genuine pace to put the wind up the batsmen.
And though they have two left-arm seamers in David Willey and Reece Topley – a type of bowling that is consistently successful in T20 – both are still learning their roles.
Third seamer Chris Jordan, meanwhile, is a bit hit and miss.
The one notable bowler is the leg-spinner Adil Rashid who is an invaluable wicket-taker and has improved markedly since his stint in Australia’s Big Bash.
These two T20s come at a good time in England’s development.
They are a young, emerging team and they will be tested by a South African side who themselves have won six out of their last seven T20s, including chasing 200 in India.
After Sunday’s match in Johannesburg, England will have a clearer idea of where they are at.
