England face South Africa at Chester-le-Street in a Twenty20 International today with the Proteas fresh from a 2-1 Test series win — their first in England in almost half a century.
In addition, England must do without Nottinghamshire left-arm seam bowler Ryan Sidebottom, ruled out with a hip problem, while Chris Tremlett is also suffering with a heel injury.
After pocketing the final Test, England will hope to step up their game a notch in the Twenty20 format as South-African-born Kevin Pietersen leads them through what is a transitional phase just two weeks after he took over the Test side mantle from Michael Vaughan and the one-day responsibilities from Paul Collingwood.
With England’s last 15 one-day outings having brought only five wins South Africa are favorites to win the five-match ODI series which follows on from today.
Pietersen has promoted Owais Shah to number three in the one-day team’s batting order.
“Owais is going to bat at No. 3 for the simple fact that I think he was wasted at No. 7,” he said.
“He’s a high-scoring, quick-scoring cricket player who plays cricket shots to get boundaries and I think down the order he was wasted. When he has played for us, he’s always done really well. He got a one-day hundred against India last year and has got runs this year and I am going to give him the confidence to bat at number three with myself at number four,” Pietersen said.
“I haven’t thought about the Twenty20 side yet, but there’s definitely a strong case for Owais getting a good opportunity to bat and play long innings for England,” he said.
Pietersen has also pushed the recalled Matt Prior to the top of the batting order.
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