James Fiztpatrick
| cricket20
England go into today's Twenty20 international against South Africa looking to rebuild after a disappointing World Cup in the Summer which saw the hosts knocked out in the Super Eights stage.
England have played 20 Twenty20 internationals since 2005 losing 12 times and have always looked unprepared for the shortest format of the game. With the 2010 Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies only six months away England have only got two competitive games to somehow formulate a plan and pick their best eleven.
The problems mount for England as these two games are against South Africa this weekend. The situation is the same for the Proteas but they are a vastly better team then England and this weekend games will prove only one thing, that South Africa are the better team.
England go into the game with a number of injury worries with Alastair Cook the main concern, Cook left training at the Wanderers yesterday after suffering 'virus like' symptoms.
Andrew Strauss will be on stand by to come into the line up to open the batting if Cook is unable to shake off the bug. Despite carrying knocks Graeme Swann, Graham Onions and James Anderson have all be declared fit and will play tonight unlike Stuart Broad and Kevin Pietersen.
Broad is still recovering from a shoulder injury, while Pietersen won't be risked after recovering from his Achilles problem. Despite missing out Twenty20 captain Paul Collingwood has admitted the return of Pietersen has given the team a boost. "When KP comes back in the side, what he brings is a world-class player, it's as simple as that," said Collingwood.
"He's going to be available from the Potchefstroom game and we're all looking forward to him coming back into that starting line-up because we all know what he can do with the bat."
"He's a great character to have in the dressing room and that can only be a real positive for us because we've missed him over the past few months. You always miss a guy who can play the shots that he can play and we look forward to him coming back in."
South Africa have no injury worries going into the game. Dale Steyn is back in the line up after missing the second one day international against Zimbabwe while Loots Bosman will open the batting with Graeme Smith as the Proteas have decided to rest Jacque Kallis.
South Africa - Graeme Smith (capt), Loots Bosman, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Albie Morkel, Mark Boucher (wk), Ryan McLaren, Roelof van der Merwe, Johan Botha, Dale Steyn, Charl Langeveldt.
England (from) - P Collingwood (capt), J Denly, A Cook, J Trott, E Morgan, M Prior (wkt), L Wright, T Bresnan, A Rashid, G Swann, S Mahmood, G Onions, J Anderson.
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