It seems a long time ago since England won the Ashes at the Oval last summer, but now they are ready for a return to Test cricket in South Africa. When they first arrived there, I don’t think many people would have given them a chance against the world’s No 1 rated Test side, but they have prepared well and England’s top five in their batting order look settled and strong. They’ve all got some runs at some stage of the tour and it’s great that Alastair Cook has done well in the two warm-up matches.

While the top five looks good, it will still be interesting to see the reception both Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen get on their return to South Africa when they walk out to bat in the first Test. Trott has handled the step up to Test cricket superbly and this will almost be his last hurdle to clear, while Pietersen has been there before and knows what to expect and how to handle it. It is looking like a good top five and with Paul Collingwood getting runs in the one-dayers, the big question for England is whether they pick five specialist batsmen and five bowlers or six batsman and only four bowlers.

I think Ian Bell can count himself very unlucky if he is not picked. He played in the last Test at the Oval and scored vital runs, but the selectors know that if they include him it will give them less variety in their attack. I’m not sure they can afford to go into a Test match with only four bowlers, particularly when two of them have injury concerns. Ryan Sidebottom has done well so far on the tour and got five wickets in one of the warm-up matches but has not got a good injury record over the last 18 months. There are also concerns over Jimmy Anderson, who has been struggling with a knee problem, and does not look fully-fit based on the bits of footage we’ve seen of the last game. It will be a delicate situation for the management to juggle with because it is important to start the series well.

England do not, traditionally, start tours well but there should be no excuses this time. They have been over in South Africa for quite a while now, they have played the one-day series and a couple of warm-up matches so everybody should be acclimatised and in game mode - there should be no excuses that they are under-prepared. I would like them to go into the match by being aggressive and picking five specialist batsman, a wicketkeeper and five bowlers. I believe that is the way to win Test matches and it will enable them to pick both Anderson and Sidebottom without worrying what will happen if either or both of them breaks down.

If England decide on this course, it will be an interesting choice whether they go for the all-rounder in Luke Wright who strengthens the batting order, or look at a specialist bowler like Graham Onions to help the variety of their attack. I know Onions bowled well in one of the two warm-up matches, but his inclusion would mean Stuart Broad batting at No 7, which the management may not want at this stage of his career. Whoever England choose, I anticipate a tight series and a lot tighter than I thought it would be a few months ago. I think England have gained a lot of confidence from their one-day series win while South Africa do not look quite as formidable as they did at the start of the tour and I will be watching the series with interest.

A couple of players who are on the ISM books have also done well out in South Africa with the England Performance Squad. Ajmal Shahzad got seven wickets in one of their games and bowled with pace and accuracy and hopefully this will be the start of him developing into a full England player. Craig Kieswetter has also impressed the staff out there on his first England trip and maybe both of them can start knocking on the door in the future.

I have already been a part of an England squad who have beaten South Africa this winter at a Masters Event in Barbados recently. The England team took on Sri Lanka, West Indies and South Africa and we managed to get through and beat South Africa in the final. We had a younger team than some of the opposition with a few of our lads still playing like Mark Ramprakash, Dominic Cork and Paul Nixon. It was a great trip, it was good to meet up with lads I played with for England and although it was very social, the cricket was also played in a good spirit with everyone competing as hard as they’ve ever done. We had about 8-9,000 watching us under floodlights for the match against West Indies and I even got a few runs against Sri Lanka when I opened the batting and scored at better than a run a ball, which pleased me immensely. Unfortunately, I got a calf strain so I didn’t play in the last couple of games so if we do it again, we’ll probably need a bigger squad.