Hopefully South Africa will actually put up a fight, but they are vulnerable in the same way that England are and that is to say they play a 'safety-first' highly conservative style of cricket. England had no plan b and it's quite possible South Africa don't either should Australia go hard at them and should they find themselves under pressure either with bat or ball. There is also the issue of politics which is never far away in SA cricket. There were reports that Smith came close to resigning his captaincy over selection policies in the recent series against India.
At least South Africa have weapons though. Steyn is in a class of his own, provided he gets over his rib injury and is fit to play, Philander is their Ryan Harris whilst Morne Morkel generates good height and bounce and bowls very accurately. Their achilles heel is their spin bowling department, but at least if they pick Robbie Petersen he can make valuable runs in the lower order and he is competent in the field.
It remains to be seen who comes into the side to replace Kallis. His bowling had certainly tapered off in recent times as had his batting, so I'm not sure he is such a big loss. Either he was pushed or he retired before Mitchell Johnson and co could get at him and end his career as they ended a few English ones.
If it was up to me I would give the 21 year old prodigy Quinton de Kock his Test debut. He scored a ton in each of the three ODIs against India recently. He's a left-hander and he looks to be a real talent.He would play the same role as Haddin being a keeper who can bat and make valuable runs in the lower order freeing up DeVilliers to take Kallis' #4 position and concentrate solely on his batting responsibilities.
Their batting is very strong. Smith might largely be a has-been, but Alviro Petersen is a solid opener, Amla is the South African Zaheer Abbas, DeVilliers needs no introduction, Faf du Plessis is a streetfighter and Duminy is South Africa's Brian Lara. All the bowlers can bat too. Petersen and Philander are proper batsmen.
I haven't seen real cricket being played all summer. Hopefully that will change in South Africa.
