Clarity around batting and better balance gives Fleming plenty to work with

South Africa are likely to face a better balanced and stronger England team for the December/January Test series than the Australian one they defeated last month.

The most striking difference between England and their Antipodean rivals is the age profile. Four of their top batters named in their squad on Monday are 27 or younger and their bowlers while slightly older are also still younger than the Australian attack. Only Cameron Green in the Australia batting unit was under 30, while Pat Cummins, 33, is the youngest of the bowlers.

Where Australia were looking for an opener and carried a no.3, who lacked confidence and form, in his first assignment as head coach, Stephen Fleming’s biggest challenge will be to try and fit all the batting talent into a starting XI. The fact that they have strong options, stands in contrast to what the Australians, who flew in Nic Maddinson to open the batting, had at their disposal.

The big question for Fleming and skipper Joe Root will be the composition of the top three, specifically whether to continue with Jordan Cox in that spot, or return to Jacob Bethell, who’s hundred in the final Ashes Test in Sydney last summer was one of the bright spots on an otherwise dreadful tour Down Under.

After picking up a knee injury in an ODI in July, Bethell’s place was taken by Cox, who scored three half-centuries in five innings against Pakistan.

With Emilio Gay and Ben Duckett set to open, skipper Joe Root at No 4, Harry Brook at 5 and Dan Lawrence, who also made three half-centuries against Pakistan, at 6, England have a clarity and a stability in their batting order, which Australia badly lacked.

Five of those batters have experience of playing in the SA20 — and Duckett’s case the Mzansi Super League — so conditions are fairly familiar as will be the opposition bowlers.

England’s fast bowling unit will appreciate the pace and carry at the two Highveld venues (Wanderers, then Centurion), where the first two Tests will be played and even Fleming has recent experience of South Africa, through his work as coach of the Joburg Super Kings.

The big surprise in the England squad was the call-up for Liam Patterson-White a left-arm spinner, who wasn’t on anyone’s radar. “[His] selection comes on the back of a strong summer in the County Championship, when he took the most wickets of any spinner in Division One with 42 at an average of 25.11 and earned his first ECB Development Contract,” England national selector Marcus North said.

It’s unlikely England will use Patterson-White in the first two Tests, with any spin requirements likely to fall to Lawrence and Root. The New Year’s Test will be a different matter. Based on the last two Tests played at Newlands, a frontline spinner is essential for the third match. Keshav Maharaj bowled 53 overs in the 2025 match against Pakistan, taking five wickets and against Australia, Simon Harmer’s maiden ‘ten-for’ sealed the series two weeks ago.

Of greatest interest will be England’s approach. That batting line-up is one that leans towards aggression and is also coming out of an era in which it was defined by flamboyance, but later recklessness.

Fleming’s more cerebral outlook is supposed to temper the on-field excess of the ‘Bazball’ period, while still maintaining the intensity with which the players operated, just extending it for longer.

South Africa have shown, not only against Australia, but last year in India and Pakistan, that they are experts at absorbing pressure — for long periods — but also exerting it, both with bat and ball.

They have concerns of their own — mostly around the top order batting — which they’d like to see at least partly resolved during the two Tests against Bangladesh, the first of which starts at the Wanderers on Sunday.