England Versus South Africa 1st Cricket Test

The England versus South Africa 1^st Test Match will played at The Oval, London from tomorrow (Thursday, July 19) until Monday, July 23, and is expected to be a real humdinger.

England got a morale boost when the annual update of the ICC Test rankings was published recently. In this update, the results before 2009 were removed from the reckoning so as to give greater emphasis to recent form.

The gap between England and South Africa widened. In fact, South Africa was relegated to third spot, with Australia coming in between. However, South Africa seems to be downplaying this turn of events.

Russell Domingo, the assistant coach of South Africa, said that the change in ranking makes no difference to the team. Earlier they required a series win to claim the top spot and even now a series win will take them there.

England Team For 1^st Cricket Test Match

England has no intention of letting South Africa get the better of them. They have announced a formidable line up from which the playing eleven will be chosen.

James Anderson and Stuart Broad will be playing again, after having been rested for the last Test against the West Indies. They will be accompanied by one from Steven Finn, Tim Bresnan and the newly inducted Graham Onions. It will be a tough call because all three have been performing well.

The crucial change has been the inclusion of Ravi Bopara in place of Jonny Bairstow. Bairstow played in the England versus West Indies cricket Test series but performed significantly below expectation.

Bopara has been given opportunities to play Test cricket in the past but has not delivered. However, because of his fantastic performance with the bat in the shorter versions of the game against the West Indies he has been given yet another chance.

The 13 member squad for the 1^st England versus South Africa Test is as follows: Andrew Strauss (capt), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Matt Prior (wk), Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Steven Finn and Graham Onions.

Bet365 Odds for England vs South Africa Test

The online betting site Bet365 offers markets for the 1^st Test and the entire series against South Africa and in both cases England is the firm favourite. The odds for the 1^st Test are as follows.

England 9/5

South Africa 3/1

Draw 5/4

The odds for the Test series are as follows.

England 11/10

South Africa 21/10

Draw 14/5

Bet365 online also offers live in-play betting. Punters who are following live action will have a number of interesting markets to choose from.