England gather up for comeback in second Test

England will seek to bounce back after what spin bowler Graeme Swann described as a “public humiliation” when they face South Africa in the second Test starting at Headingley on Thursday. England’s ranking as the number one Test team is under threat after they were beaten by an innings and 12 runs in the first Test at the Oval last week, with the hosts taking only two wickets while South Africa piled up 637 runs in their only innings.
Swann revealed that the England players spent two hours analysing their defeat immediately after the first Test and England coach Andy Flower insisted that confidence remains high and that the team could come back strongly.
“We get ourselves into the right frame of mind by doing the things that we have been doing very well for the last couple of years,” said Flower.
“I have every confidence in our players that we can come back and play good cricket.”
England will lose their number one ranking if the tourists win what is only a three-match series and so they need to bounce back quickly.
However, they can draw some comfort from recent South African defeats which have followed innings wins.
The Proteas beat India by an innings in the first Test in an away series in 2009/10 and a home series in 2010/11 only to lose the second Test each time, and that dubious feat was repeated at home against Sri Lanka in 2011/12.
They also won the first Test against Australia last summer, albeit not by an innings, only to lose the second clash.
With conditions likely to be more bowler-friendly at the Yorkshire ground than they were at the Oval, England will seek to exploit the potential weakness of South Africa’s batting from number six down.
Specialist batsmen Jacques Rudolph and JP Duminy did not bat at the Oval and failed to strike form in four innings apiece in warm-up games against county teams, while the South African tail does not have the batting credentials of the England lower order. However, Rudolph, who spent five years playing for Yorkshire, brushed aside any concerns when he spoke to journalists on Tuesday.
“The way we play the game we are not too results orientated,” he said. “Going into Thursday we just have to make sure we stick to the same processes which I thought we did brilliantly in batting and bowling down at the Oval.”
South Africa will almost certainly stay with the team that triumphed at the Oval, while England will make at least one change following the withdrawal for personal reasons of batsman Ravi Bopara.
Uncapped James Taylor was called into the squad and will make his debut unless England decide to go in with an extra bowler.
Flower said, though, that a four-man attack had served England well and he did not see any reason to change the strategy.
If Taylor does play he will come into the match in good form, having made 163 not out for Nottinghamshire against Sussex in a county match at the weekend.
Tall fast bowler Steven Finn, who was in the squad but did not play at the Oval, could be brought in to provide more penetration to the England bowling attack in place of Yorkshire pace bowler Tim Bresnan.
Probable teams and officials for the second Test between England and South Africa starting at Headingley here on Thursday:
England (from): Andrew Strauss (capt), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, James Taylor, Matt Prior (wkt), Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Steven Finn, Graham Onions
South Africa (likely): Graeme Smith (capt), Alviro Petersen, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers (wkt), Jacques Rudolph, JP Duminy, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Imran Tahir
Umpires: Steve Davis, Rod Tucker (both AUS)
TV umpire: Asad Rauf (PAK)
Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL)