The England tour to South Africa holds an intangible significance to the survival of cricket in South Africa, with passionate Fanatics waiting in anticipation to see some of their favourite players in action, writes Lucy Rees.

While many fans have taken to social media in the plea that AB de Villiers will make a return after his run in the IPL this year, there has been a more negative flutter on various platforms too.

With the UK labelled as a “High Risk” country who have been forced into a second hard lockdown and Cricket South Africa’s Members Council refusing to accept the government-appointed interim board, this cast a worrying doubt about the tour in recent days.

Seeing Newlands advertising the games on their digital boards at the stadium and the touring side leaving their country on Monday 16 November, despite the national lockdown put in place in the UK, the limited-overs tour does seem to be going ahead.

The last time these two teams met, they played all three of the formats at Centurion, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg, Paarl, East London, and Durban.

This time, however, the Proteas will play three T20s and three one-day internationals, all in the Western Cape. With COVID-19 restrictions still in place, the games will be played behind closed doors and will only be held at Cape Town and Paarl as these have been made COVID-secure.

Last winter (South African summer), between December 2019 and February 2020, three ODIs and three T20s were played after the four-Test matches. South Africa and England equalled in the ODIs, with one being abandoned to rain. England then took the lead in the T20Is after losing to the Proteas in the first match in East London and winning in Durban and Centurion.

Starting on the 27th of November, this is the first international cricket that South Africa will have played and the first overseas tour for the opposition since the Coronavirus Pandemic. This is also South African skipper, Quinton de Kock’s first series against England as white-ball captain since taking over from Faf du Plessis in January earlier this year.

Squads:

Proteas:

England:

Predictions for the series:

We all want the series to be played with good spirits and hope that QDK has a good run for his money in his first series as skipper against England. It would be nice for SA to get a series win on home soil but after seeing England last year, including their 2019 World Cup campaign, Eoin Morgan’s men are looking strong. It will be De Kock against Morgan and only time will tell, 10 days and counting…

Stand out Players:

With the IPL over and done with, who wouldn’t be excited to see Kagiso Rabada take to the field and to take some key wickets for the Proteas. At the age of 25, KG is still very young, and he is one of the most exciting bowlers in the World, proving it again in the IPL. He was the top wicket-taker in the Indian Premier League this year whilst playing for the Delhi Capitals, taking 30 wickets in the 17 matches he played.

It will also be exciting to see Quinton de Kock behind the stumps and at the crease, scoring a total of 503 runs in 16 matches at this year’s IPL, finishing sixth top run-scorer and second top run-scorer out of the overseas players.

As well as looking forward to seeing the familiar faces who have been playing in the IPL. It would also be exciting to see the men who haven’t been playing out in the UAE. It will be good to see how much preparation they have been putting in over the winter, knowing that international cricket would return.

After seeing England secure their home World Cup win last year then taking the lead in the ODI series in SA, it will be good to see if they’re still on top, there’s only so much stats can tell you.

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