South Africa vs England: Tourists look to fill gaps around top performers in fourth Test

The series is dead. Long live the series. England may have already accomplished, in thrilling fashion, what they came to South Africa to do, but the business here is unfinished.

The fourth Test starting today represents an opportunity to win the rubber 3-0, which would truly exceed all expectations against a team that remain officially No 1 in the world Test rankings.

But the sub-plot, perhaps more intriguing, offers the opportunity for individual players to secure their places, or at least keep their names prominent in the minds of the selectors.

Alastair Cook, England’s captain, clearly views the match as a significant pointer to the summer at home when Sri Lanka and Pakistan are the visitors. That is four months away – with a welter of limited-overs cricket before then – but some issues can be settled now.

“The guys are desperate to shore up their spots so when the meeting comes for the Sri Lankan series they’ve earned that right,” said Cook yesterday. “I’m really looking forward to this week to see how people respond to that. We’ve got an opportunity to see how far we’ve gone.”

There is no doubt that England have gone further, faster than they or anyone else thought likely. In the long sequence of Test matches dating back to last May (it has been seemingly unending but now, blessedly, the end is nigh) England have won seven, lost six and drawn three. Thus, they cannot finish in debit.

But AB de Villiers, South Africa’s captain, was not merely seeking to make mischief yesterday when he suggested there were weaknesses in England’s team. Some of them indeed are glaring and all of them need to be addressed in this match by the players exhibiting them – or by the selectors in May.

The runs have come largely from three batsmen and if this tends to be true of any team at any given time, since not everybody is going to fire together, there is a familiar ring to this brittleness.

Cook can be forgiven his moderate series after the amount of runs he scored last year (his average in this cycle of 16 Tests is still 50.34) but there have not been significant, prolonged contributions from Nos 2, 3 and 5.

To an extent, England have been shored up by runs from four, six and seven in the shape of Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow.

The bowling is in better order but De Villiers’ assertion that some of the opposition were shorter of pace than they once had been might have had some merit. He can only have been referring to Jimmy Anderson since Stuart Broad dismantled his side last week, while Steve Finn, out of this match, and Stokes have sometimes bowled like the wind.

“A lot of runs have been scored by Joe, Ben and Jonny in this series, which is great, but other guys haven’t quite contributed, myself included, and we’ve got a chance to do that in this game,” said Cook. “We were very ruthless in that last game. We sniffed an opportunity and piled through it brilliantly, led by Stuart. We have shown signs of piling through when we’ve had chances but we’ve got a lot to play for here. I have no doubt the attitude of the guys will be fine. The training is as intense as ever.”

England remained uncertain until the final net practice about their XI. With Finn absent with a side strain, the obvious candidate to replace him is Chris Woakes, who acquitted himself well in the first Test. There was a clear temptation, however, to select Mark Footitt because of the two extra dimensions he brings – he bowls left arm at high pace.

Woakes is the more precise bowler and the feeling that he may not win many matches with a huge haul of wickets should not preclude his being picked. Although Footitt earned his selection with just such spoils for Derbyshire in the Second Division of the Championship, he might not have quite what it takes at this level.

England definitely see something that may give top-class players the hurry-up, though. There may be a lesson to learn from South Africa. They called up the speedster Hardus Viljoen amid much fanfare for the last Test at the Wanderers but after taking a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket it was pretty much all downhill as his control deteriorated for the rest of the match. Viljoen was released from this squad two days ago.

Cook was adamant that all three reserve fast bowlers – Chris Jordan is the other – were in contention. But eventually he dropped the hint that the more reliable Woakes, who may yet have a proper Test career in front of him, would be the preference. “If in doubt you play your strongest side,” he said. “When you’re weighing up a lot of options you can over-complicate it so we will want to play our best team.”

Driving England on will be the fact that they have lost the final Test in six of their most recent seven series. They will particularly recall the heavy defeat to Australia at The Oval last year when the Ashes were already won.

South Africa have won 15 of the 20 Tests at Centurion but have never beaten England at the ground.

All that should help to concentrate minds and these tourists may yet have another spectacular individual performance left in them.