England’s new captain, Joe Root, won the toss and elected to bat against South Africa in the first Test at Lord’s on Thursday.
A lightly grassed pitch and blue skies overhead offered the promise of good batting conditions in the first of a four-match series.
This was Root’s first Test as England captain following his appointment as successor to Alastair Cook, who remains in the side as an opening batsman only.
Root had confirmed the team on Wednesday, with his Yorkshire colleague Gary Ballance recalled at number three after stacking up the runs in county cricket and the hosts playing two spinners — Moeen Ali and left-armer Liam Dawson on home debut — in a Lord’s Test for the first time since 1993.
South Africa also had a new captain with Dean Elgar standing in for Faf du Plessis, who has remained at home to attend to his wife following the birth of the couple’s first child.
The Proteas decided to include middle-order batsman Theunis de Bruyn rather than all-rounder Chris Morris in their XI, with 33-year-old opener Heino Kuhn making his Test debut in the first of this four-match series.
England lost eight Tests in a 2016 that culminated with a 4-0 series loss in India, although they did start the year with a series win in South Africa.
But South Africa have a remarkable away record.
Since losing to Sri Lanka in 2006, they have played 19 away Test series, won 13, drawn five and lost just one — to India in 2015/16.
That sequence includes a 2-0 win in a three-match series on their last visit to England in 2012.
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