Thursday 10 December 2015 16:55, UK
As England begin their tour of South Africa, Sky Sports pundit Nasser Hussain assesses how the two teams are shaping up...
How tough will this tour to South Africa be?
NASSER: South Africa are ranked number one in the world for a reason and will relish the chance to put the record straight on home soil after their defeat in India. Their cricketers are headstrong and aggressive and as a player you feel that same national pride when you travel around the country; as a touring team you are certainly not an after-thought. Everyone knows you are in town, everyone knows there is massive sporting event going on and everyone will do their best to make sure to let you know that South Africa will win.
It sounds like the sort of challenge England will relish…
NASSER: In a funny sort of way England will quite enjoy going to South Africa, not least because they'll be playing in conditions that are more English-like than they were in the UAE. It won't quite be the green, green grass of home that we saw this summer in the Ashes but there will be pace in the pitches for the seam bowlers as well as movement too. It won't move around for 60-70 overs, though - the new ball moves around for nearer 20 overs in South Africa and then it does become hard work for the bowlers. South Africa will be thinking the same after their very tough tour of India - in particular the batsmen after the way they've struggled on the turning pitches.
Are there other weaknesses England can exploit?
NASSER: South Africa are a mighty outfit - I wouldn't want anyone to think any differently, but in my era they were more of a complete team - they made massive contributions from one to 11, whereas now I think they are very reliant on three or four cricketers: Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers with the bat and Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel with the ball.
Their batting can look a little fragile at times, particularly since the retirement of Jacques Kallis, but England will still have to work hard for every wicket.
This is Cook's first tour of South Africa as captain. How does he measure up to Amla?
NASSER: They're very similar characters in many ways - they're both calm, well-spoken individuals who aren't in your face. Neither has a tendency to rush or make 'look-at-me' decisions. Cook has obviously been in the job a lot longer and has been through the ups-and-downs of Test match cricket and Test captaincy.
South Africa's defeat in India is the first serious test Amla has had to face. He's not got as many runs as he'd like, which is understandable given the pitches they've played on, but the team has lost its first overseas tour since 2006. Cook has come out of the other side of a downward spiral so Amla could possibly look across to Cook and see how he has reacted to disappointment.
Cook, likewise, will be disappointed by his team's defeat in the UAE but the difference there is that his team had opportunities to win. There will be a lot of boys going to South Africa, especially those who played in the white-ball series in the UAE, full of hope and optimism. Both captains rely heavily on senior bowlers; it could well be that the series is decided by how they handle the back-up bowling after Steyn and Morkel, and Anderson and Broad.
How did your first tour to South Africa as skipper go?
NASSER: In 1999-2000 we went to South Africa with a much-changed side; we were in turmoil and needed to regroup. We were right down at the bottom of the rankings after losing to New Zealand and South Africa were a very powerful Test nation then with the likes of Allan Donald, Hansie Cronje and Shaun Pollock still playing. We were in a major restructuring phrase. Duncan Fletcher had just come on board, it was my first tour as England captain and we were just starting afresh really with a clean slate for several players.
Losing the toss in Johannesburg on a wet pitch didn't help and at 2-4 I turned to Fletch and said 'Welcome to Test cricket'. It was an unusual tour but it wasn't an eye-opener; it was more of a reality check of where we were and where we needed to get to. Seeing the standard of cricket we needed to play to improve and get up the ladder and through that tour I thought we did improve quite a bit.
Watch South Africa's four-Test series with England live on Sky Sports, starting with the opener on Boxing Day from 7.30am on Sky Sports 2.
