OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 6.00pm.
MICHAEL Vaughan and Chris Adams are certain to make their Test debuts for England when they take on South Africa at the Wanderers on Thursday.
Although a final decision will not be made until the captain Nasser Hussain has a look at the pitch in the morning, Gavin Hamilton is virtually certain to join them, thereby
representing two different countries, Scotland and England, in the space of six months. Vaughan will be left to do any spin bowling with Phil Tufnell on the sidelines.
England have named their squad of 12 for the first Test and to nobody’s surprise it consists pretty much of those who have played the bulk of the cricket on the tour to date.
Not for nothing is the Wanderers known as the bullring.
”I think this is the most imposing stadium in South Africa,” says Mike Atherton.
Nobody in the England side, of course, is better qualified than Atherton to speak of the Wanderers atmosphere, for it was here four years ago that he played his famous 11-hour rearguard innings to save a match that had seemed doomed. Although he will not admit it, he must be only too well aware that many of the aspirations of this England side hinge on his success or failure over the next few months.
Whether he is able to resume his personal tussle with Allan Donald remains uncertain. No Test of modern times between the two sides has been without a dual between the two, and the memory of the raw confrontation at Trent Bridge last year still sets the pulse racing. But Donald has suffered a side strain in recent weeks and has undergone a series of injections. The prognosis for a five-day Test can be 50-50 at best.
A South African side shorn of Donald, and already without the bowling of Jacques Kallis, takes on a different appearance and it is not nearly as threatening.