Tom Westley may have tasted the delights of a century against South Africa this summer but for the touring captain, Faf du Plessis, England’s new No3 will not recognise the bowlers he faces on his Test debut on Thursday because of a step up in intensity.
As well as a blossoming county career for Essex over the past three seasons, Westley’s selection for The Oval, in place of the injured Gary Ballance, owes much to the unbeaten 106 he scored against the tourists when playing for the England Lions at New Road last month.
Although Vernon Philander was absent through injury that day, it was the third such success the 28-year-old right-hander has enjoyed against an international attack, with centuries for Essex against Sri Lanka and Australia in the two preceding summers. However, Du Plessis, who also missed the match while on paternity leave, appeared distinctly unperturbed.
“I don’t know anything about Tom Westley,” said the South African captain, who welcomes back Kagiso Rabada after the fast bowler served a one-match ban during the 340-run win at Trent Bridge. “Well done to him for getting a hundred but I can promise you the intensity of a warm-up game versus a Test match … he will play against a different attack.”
If the words sound cocky then they were also couched by Du Plessis saying his team will of course do extra homework on Westley before the coin goes up in South London, as well as on England’s other guaranteed debutant, Toby Roland-Jones, who they faced during the Middlesex seamer’s solitary one-day international appearance at Lord’s in May.
But while the four-match series may be locked at one apiece after two one-sided Tests, Du Plessis is clearly relishing the focus being on England’s shortcomings right now. It is a familiar feeling for the 33-year-old, too, following on from the spell of national introspection his team managed to induce when defeating Australia in Australia last November.
On that occasion South Africa went 2-0 up with one to play, with Australia dropping four players in response (Adam Voges was also ruled out with concussion) and giving debuts to Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb and Nic Maddinson for the dead-rubber day-nighter in Adelaide.
The temperature in England may not quite have hit the boiling point reached in Australia last year but should Joe Root’s side bolster their batting with Dawid Malan, it will mean three new caps against a more settled touring side – and a side who have also welcomed back their head coach, Russell Domingo, after he missed the Trent Bridge Test for family reasons.
“I thought the exact same thing,” Du Plessis said when asked if he saw the parallels. “The situation feels very similar. After the first Test in Australia, there was quite a bit of press against the Australian team and then we stepped our game up even more in the second Test. After that, it was a free for all and you could see the Australian team were feeling a bit of pressure.
“I see it as a nice thing for us to be in as the opposition. All teams don’t want to feel the pressure and you do feel the pressure when you don’t play your best cricket – that’s part of the game. The England cricket team will be the first to say that they will accept criticism from the last Test and they will try to brush it off straight away and start a new game fresh and play some good cricket. We will certainly try to make use of pressure wherever we can.”
Do England and Australia – the wider nations at least – not rate this current South Africa side (ignoring their second‑place Test ranking) and believe superiority at home should be a given? Du Plessis, as has been common since his impactful return after missing the defeat at Lord’s, was happy to meet the question head on.
“Possibly, at times. We don’t have the names that we used to have and that is how I see our team’s strength – our focus is on every guy in the team playing a small role to get us over the line. I will be very happy to keep being underrated. If we keep putting in small performances we put pressure on the big and strong teams around the world.”
The big guns Du Plessis referred to jump out from the scorecard from their last visit to The Oval – an innings hammering in which England took only two wickets – now Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis have retired, Dale Steyn is injured and AB de Villiers has seemingly fallen out of love with Test cricket amid a curious sabbatical.
Nevertheless, Du Plessis, whose record since taking the captaincy last year is three series wins and eight victories from 12 Tests, still underplayed a team littered with performers – perhaps more with the ball than bat – and a side who clearly enjoy playing the role of the disruptive house guest.
