LONDON – England and South Africa’s players regather on Monday to prepare for the third Test – the 100th to be played at The Oval – with the home team’s players having more on their minds than the tourists.
The South Africans have darted off all over the place in this extended break in the middle of the series.
Quinton de Kock, Hashim Amla and batting coach Neil McKenzie went home, Keshav Maharaj went to Manchester to visit mates, JP Duminy headed up to Royal Birkdale to catch a round of the Open Championship, and Vernon Philander, instead of watching, has been playing golf.
England’s players may have done many similar things, but while the South Africans have been able to enjoy their time off, the English would have had some nagging doubts coursing through their minds.
That 340-run defeat in the second Test was a substantial one. And they made a lot of errors in that match, but they may not be as fixable as South Africa’s mistakes were after Lord’s.
In the case of the Proteas, it was about eliminating no-balls, bowling better lines, creating and sustaining pressure for longer periods and ensuring they took their catches, which they did at Trent Bridge.
In England’s case, their errors involve a mindset change and that is something far harder to achieve. How do you go about tightening your batting when attack is what you’re most comfortable doing?
In the case of Keaton Jennings, how do you pass a test of your technique when you can’t seem to judge which way the ball is going? If you’re Alastair Cook, how do you carry the rest of that top-order, knowing that if you fail, so do they?
If you’re captain Joe Root, have you figured out a way to make sure this is your team, and it is you who gives it direction? And oh, there are three players who could make their debut, so how do they fit in and what more will that demand of Root?
Right now it seems South Africa’s problems were far easier to solve after Lord’s.
It required courage to make those changes, but they were made in the right frame of mind and with the right aims in mind.
England’s selections in the first two Tests have been strange.
Gary Ballance, with the same technical shortcomings as in previous two stints as a Test player, was a captain’s pick.
They have to stick with Jennings because, well, there doesn’t seem to be anyone else, and the player who has scored a lot of runs at The Oval this season for Surrey, Mark Stoneman, is someone coach Trevor Bayliss hasn’t watched, so he wasn’t in the squad for the second Test.
Then there’s Liam Dawson. Other than Bayliss, who sees him as a front-line spinner, no one else can figure out why he’s in the side.
Oh, and Mark Wood may have a had a great Champions Trophy campaign, but he’s a level below Stuart Broad and James Anderson in the Test format, and the Proteas batsmen have enjoyed facing him.
If Wood doesn’t play at The Oval, Toby Roland-Jones, another all-rounder, will get a start – or they could keep Wood in the starting XI, still pick Roland-Jones and drop Dawson.
That would mean, however, that Moeen Ali is the front-line spinner and according to Bayliss, Moeen doesn’t like being viewed as such because the expectations in that role are too much for him to handle.
Tom Westley of Essex will likely bat at No 3 because of Ballance’s injury, so there’ll be at least one debutant, and if the English try and force in former Boland player Dawid Malan in the middle-order – as either a replacement for Dawson or Wood – that’ll make two debutants.
It’s quite the conundrum for England – good thing there’s so much time to think about it.
The Proteas will make one change: Kagiso Rabada will return in place of Duanne Olivier.
Whose shoes would you rather be in this week?