England cricket
England will be looking to follow up on their T20 series win over South Africa Getty

England take on South Africa in the first Test match scheduled between the two sides at Lord's in London on Thursday (6 July).

Where to watch

The match starts at 11am BST. Live coverage of the game is available on Sky Sports 2 and Sky Sports 2 HD.

Overview

Following the 2-1 Twenty20 series win over South Africa towards the end of June, England will now be hoping for another victory in their four-match Test series against the visitors.

In what will notably be the first Test match of the Joe Root era following the resignation of former captain Alastair Cook in February, the hosts will not be facing an easy task despite South Africa's recent poor form.

South Africa, the number-two team in the ICC rankings, have won their last four Test series and incredibly lost only one Test series away from home in the last 10 years. Interestingly enough, however, their last Test loss came at home against England in 2015.

They will be without skipper Faf du Plessis who will miss the first Test to attend the birth of his first child and will rejoin the squad later this week. AB de Villiers is set to miss the entire series as he ponders his international future.

As for the Three Lions, Root has been called on to take his game to the next level as captain, already averaging 52.80 runs and 11 centuries in 53 Tests.

With some good form in recent One Day Internationals and T20 matches, Root's England will be looking to put behind a disappointing 2016 Test season which saw eight losses including an end-of-year 4-0 series loss in India.

Betting Odds (Betfair)

  • England to win: 5/6
  • South Africa to win: 3/1
  • Draw: 5/2

Prediction

England to win.

Team News

England

Possible XI: Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Gary Ballance, Joe Root (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, James Anderson, Toby Roland-Jones.

South Africa

Possible XI: Dean Elgar (c), Heino Kuhn, Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock (wk), Chris Morris, Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel.

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