Proteas stand-in captain Maharaj expects stern test from buoyant England

Proteas stand-in ODI captain Keshav Maharaj has admitted that they are going to be tested by a buoyant England on familiar conditions during their three-match series.

SA start their tour to England with three ODIs on July 19 in Durham, followed by two at Old Trafford and Headingley, before switching to T20s.

The tour will end with three Tests at Lord’s, Old Trafford and The Oval where they will be looking to bring England down to earth after they thumped India by seven wickets with a record run-chase during the week.

Before the Tests, SA will squeeze in two T20s against Ireland as part of their build-up to the World Cup in Australia later in the year.

“I think our house is in order, everyone is ready to go on Friday and there are no issues from that point of view,” said Maharaj who is captaining the side in the absence of injured Temba Bavuma.

“England have done really well, take nothing away from their performances and obviously the new coaches have instilled their philosophies. We just have to focus on executing our game plans.

“We just have to play cricket according to the way we want to play and how we have played over the last couple of years, especially in the shorter format of the game. Hopefully it will be enough to beat this England team.”

Maharaj said England have been in good nick of late and they are going to provide his charges with a stern test.

“They have played exceptionally well over the last two to three years and they have found some rhythm to their play but it will be a good test. This will help us to see if our team wants to go forward and be the best in the world.

“If we want to be the best, we have to play and try to beat the best. To do that we must just focus on ourselves, our game plans, doing the basics well and all the other things that we want to do well and hopefully it is enough to get us across the line in this series.

Maharaj went on to say that they have picked a squad that is capable of doing the job in foreign conditions.

“If you have looked at how we have gone about our business, you can’t really isolate facets of the game where we have been better at or we have been poor at.

“We have picked a squad that will cater for all our needs when we go out there, with various combinations that we want to try. It is important that whatever we do at the toss we do really well and follow up in the second innings.

“I don’t really think that there is too much we can focus on in terms of having strengths and weakness.

“I think we have come a long way as a unit with regards to batting. Bowling as well and on the field, and hopefully we can be the polished article as the series starts so we can combat the England team.”