The first of three test matches between England and South Africa gets under way at Lords on Thursday and we take a look at the squads, recent form and the all important betting.
Let's begin with the squads.
England: Ben Stokes (C), Alex Lees, Zak Crawley, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Foakes (WK), Harry Brook, Ollie Pope, Jack Leach, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Ollie Robinson, Matthew Potts, Craig Overton
Duanne Olivier was injured in the Proteas warm up game and will miss the whole series.
South Africa: Dean Elgar (c), Sarel Erwee, Marco Jansen, Simon Harmer, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Keegan Petersen, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Lutho Sipamla, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne, Khaya Zondo, Glenton Stuurman
Recent Form
England
England hosted New Zealand in June this year and they completed a 3-0 clean sweep of the series, in thrilling fashion wit Joe Root (396 runs in 3 matches) and Bairstow (394 runs in 3 matches) in terrific form with the bat.
Since then England won the rescheduled 5th test match against India by 7 wickets to square the series (2-2) with Bairstow getting a ton in each innings and Root also made a big centruy in their fourth innings run chase of 378/3.
South Africa
The Proteas 4-day warm up match against England Lions ended in defeat. They made 433 & 183 to England's mammoth 672 to go down by an innings and 56 runs.
In March / April the Proteas won both test matches at home to Bangladesh by margins of 220 and then 332 runs.
South Africa were in New Zealand in February and after being thrashed by an innings and 276 runs in the first test they showed great character to claim a draw with a 198 run victory in the second test.
The Proteas hosted India in a 3 match series over Christmas and New Year and although they lost the first test by 113 runs they fought back for a series win, winning the second match by 7 wickets and the decider by the same margin.
Recent Head to Head
The most recent series came in SA in Dec 19 / Jan 20, the Proteas won the first test but England took each of the next 3.
In July / August 2017 in England the Proteas lost another 4 match series by a 3-1 scoreline.
Lords, London
Over the course of the last decade England have played 18 test matches at Lords, winning 8, drawing 4 and losing 6.
The most recent test at Lords came on 2nd June this year and England beat New Zealand by 5 wickets. England posted 141 & 279/5 to NZ's 132 and 285 and Joe Root was unbeaten on 115 in the fourth innings to see his side home.
In July 2017 England beat the Proteas at Lords by 211 runs with Root making 190 in the first innings
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The Betting - 1st Test Match
At the time of writing England are 8/10 to win the match with the draw at 27/10 and South Africa are 33/10
Joe Root is 2/1 to top score for England in the first innings and Elgar is 11/4 to do likewise for South Africa
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
The Verdict
England have had their problems in white ball cricket in recent weeks but the test match side have been great to watch and foot perfect in their last 4 tests under new coaching and captaincy so this is another big ask for the Proteas.
I will go with van der Dussen to score a 50 in SA's first innings. With Olivier out and Rabada having missed the limited overs matches Anrich Nortje gets the vote to be SA's top 1st innings wicket taker.
Bets: 1st Innings van der Dussen, to score a 50? yes at 15/8
SA Top 1st Innings wicket taker Nortje at 3/1
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
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