Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer

Cape Town – South Africa have a golden opportunity to grab the initiative when the five-match, MTN one-day international series against England starts at the Wanderers and SuperSport Park this weekend.

England are reeling from untimely injuries to various leading bowlers and, even if we may not see quite the Smith-Bosman sort of fireworks as hostilities shift out of cowboy Twenty20 mode, the Proteas ought to back themselves to “go big” again at the crease on Friday and Sunday.

The tourists are definitely without fast bowler Stuart Broad and now also off-spinner Graeme Swann for the first two fixtures at least, with James Anderson and Graham Onions reportedly racing against time to make the fitness cut.

Should the entire quartet be ruled out of the Highveld encounters, England will ominously find themselves relying on several bowling customers who were savaged by the Proteas at SuperSport Park in the second, series-squaring Standard Bank Pro20 meeting.

The seamers left at their disposal would be Tim Bresnan (4-0-48-0 in the Centurion “bloodbath”), Sajid Mahmood (4-0-61-1), Luke Wright (4-0-40-1) and also Liam Plunkett plus the fit-again Paul Collingwood’s off-cutters.

You would not expect confidence among most of them to be at an all-time high.

The Swann setback, confirmed on Thursday, also means England are without their most experienced limited-overs off-spinner and an urgent SOS has been sent to Kent’s uncapped James Tredwell, 27, to join the tour party.

Tredwell would barely have had the opportunity to acclimatise should he be thrown straight into the cauldron this weekend, and the South Africans might not have to treat him too much as a mystery factor anyway – he has been a county team-mate of Ryan McLaren’s and the new Proteas all-rounder will be in a position to pass on some information about him.

The other slow-bowling option to England, of course, is 21-year-old leg-spinner Adil Rashid: will they be gallant enough to expose him again?

Rashid bowled an eventful, solitary over at SuperSport Park last Sunday, taking a fearful pounding, and afterwards Mickey Arthur, the Proteas coach – he has been surprisingly vocal and provocative towards the tourists of late – quickly took the opportunity to goad them over his treatment.

“They’ve put a lot of effort into (Rashid) but for him to bowl one over I thought was criminal and it showed that he doesn’t have too much backing,” he was quoted as saying.

Some might say it is a bit rich seeing a leading South African guru slam opponents over their suspended use of a “leggie” after figures of 1-0-25-0: this country hardly has a modern reputation for encouraging those who ply that difficult trade.

Imran Tahir, for instance, the highly-rated, Lahore-born leg-spinner now qualified for South Africa, has been curtailed to the second-tier CSA Provincial Three-Day Challenge this season, and claimed match figures of 10/87 for Easterns against North West only a few days ago.

Still, the utterances of Arthur, and one or two counter-stabs, have raised the temperature a little as the tour gets nearer to “real” business.

The Proteas attack should be infinitely more settled this weekend, even with Wayne Parnell still sidelined.

McLaren is showing decent economy and composure in his early Proteas adventures, while it was always intended that Charl Langeveldt would be ready to move up a gear for the first ODI against the old enemy after gradually banishing his shoulder problem in various “tune-up” opportunities.

Still, whatever the uncertainty over composition of their side at the Wanderers, it would be most unwise of Graeme Smith’s side to regard England as pushovers – their recent 50-overs record against South Africa is surprisingly rosy, and they were apparently greatly encouraged by their midweek victory (sans several senior personnel) over a strong SA ‘A’ side.

Also possibly in England’s favour is that expected weather at the Wanderers, in particular – damp, overcast and unseasonally chilly – could make them feel just a little at home.

That said, many local pundits will probably be surprised if the ODI scoreboard after the weekend doesn’t read: South Africa 2 England 0.