*Official* England in South Africa 2019/20

[andmark]

Best wishes to Stokes's father and his family and friends at this bad time. I hope everything goes as well as possible.

 

[FBU]

Must admit, it does seem concerning & too many gone down with something to not think it may be linked.

Bowler's flu...Archer Broad Leach Woakes

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Agnew “expects England to win”. Hard to see why given the party is full of unproven players, illness and injury, plus Ben Stokes family problems. The preparation has been poor and the tour of New Zealand was dire. South Africa might be at a low ebb, but if they don’t win a home series against this England team they should have Test status removed (slight exaggeration perhaps).
Expecting talkSPORT radio coverage to be terrible as well.
Merry Christmas.

 

[SeamUp]

Think this is how they will line up.

Elgar, Markram, Hamza, du Plessis, van der Dussen, de Kock, Pretorius, Philander, Maharaj, Rabada, Nortje

Sibley, Burns, Denly, Root, Stokes, Buttler, S.Curran, Archer, Leach, Broad, Anderson

 

[theegyptian]

Bairstow in for Leach there I reckon is the likeliest team. Can't see Leach playing at all. Didn't train again today ( along with Pope and Woakes), didn't play the warmup games, didn't play the last test England played.

 

[SeamUp]

Bairstow in for Leach there I reckon is the likeliest team. Can't see Leach playing at all. Didn't train again today ( along with Pope and Woakes), didn't play the warmup games, didn't play the last test England played.

That does sound more likely from the weeks build up.

Was going by the cricinfo article saying they have to decide between Archer and Leach to bat 8.

EDIT : What about Ollie Pope ?

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Pope is ill too.

Looks like they wait till morning and pick who is fit rather than team they wanted.

 

[SeamUp]

Balancing sleep for this and watching NZL v AUS.

34 degrees in Pretoria tomorrow. Hope there is a good crowd in. Heard a few weeks back, one section was sold out for day 1 which is a good sign.

 

[SeamUp]

Rain over night in Pretoria but supposedly nothing to effect the cricket today with any seriousness. Drainage always been good there.

 

[Stefan9]

Very slight drizzle this morning when I took the dog for his walk. Nothing that would take you off the field, totally stopped now. Already 25 degrees .

 

[SeamUp]

Woakes, Leach and Pope officially ruled out of selection. Didn't travel to the ground.

 

[StephenZA]

Will Faf ever win a toss again?

About the best we could have hoped for from a Test selection. Would have preferred extra batsmen over Pretorius but was never going to happen.

 

[NUFAN]

Keen to see how Nortje goes this series. I suspect well.

The pitch looks nice for bowling, Anderson will like it.

 

[honestbharani]

Think Saf will take the series but England may nick a test. Expect Markram to come of age as a batsman and score loads.

 

[Daemon]

As if there hasn't been enough injury and illness a cameraman seems to have fallen over along the boundary and injured himself pretty badly

 

[fredfertang]

Will the Saffers get to lunch?

 

[theegyptian]

Haha

 

[StephenZA]

Gotta be ****ing kidding me...

... at least gives Hamza a chance to show something.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

What a start. Total pie that but who cares.

 

[Daemon]

Great to see both boxing day tests get off to a cracker