The Proteas have won the toss and elected to bat first on the opening day of the second Test between England and SA in at Old Trafford in Manchester on Thursday.
The Proteas made one change to the side that romped to an innings and 12-run victory in the first encounter at Lord’s last week as off-spinner Simon Harmer comes in at the expense of left-arm seamer Marco Jansen.
The home side, whose captain, Ben Stokes said they would have batted first, drafted Ollie Robinson into their bowling attack, coming in for Matthew Potts as the only change to their XI.
Elgar said their decision to bat first was based on the inspection of the pitch, which he felt looked dry.
“I guess when it comes to picking two spinners, you have to back yourselves, go with the positive nature and bat first.
“[We are] pretty excite to have ‘Harmy’ [Harmer] back. Marco did absolutely nothing wrong in the previous match, it is just horses for courses and we are playing with what we have in front of us.
“It’s always a bowling day in Manchester, it always looks like this, but I am looking at what we have in font of us with regards to the wicket that has been prepared and [we are] best suited to bat first.”
Teams
England: Alex Lees, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (capt), Ben Foakes (wk), Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad, Jack Leach, James Anderson.
SA: Dean Elgar (capt), Sarel Erwee, Keegan Petersen, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Keshav Maharaj, Simon Harmer, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortjé, Lungi Ngidi.
