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Proteas have 4 survivors from Lord's 2012

Cape Town - The Proteas head into their four-Test series against England with just four survivors from the side that played at Lord's in 2012. 

The Proteas have good memories when it comes to winning in England and they have done so twice in recent times. 

Former skipper Graeme Smith led the side to a 2-1 four-Test series win in 2008 and then a 2-0 three-Test series victory in 2012.

Fast forward five years later, and all eyes now fall upon stand-in skipper Dean Elgar to lead the Proteas to victory at Lord's and help secure their third straight Test series win in England.

Hopefully, Elgar will be able to "pass on" a win to Faf du Plessis, who is expected to return in time for the second Test at Trent Bridge on Friday, July 14.

The four players who played in 2012 are Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander.

All four of those senior players are expected to be named in the starting XI on Thursday. 

Proteas coach Russell Domingo, who was the assistant to then SA coach Gary Kirsten in 2012, knows first hand what it takes to win a Test series in England.

Domingo admits that although this is a totally different team, he believes they are good enough to tick the boxes.

"It's a massively different team," said Domingo on Monday.

"You think about the last team, we had (Graeme) Smith, (Alviro) Petersen, (Jacques) Kallis, (AB) De Villiers, (Dale) Steyn, (Imran) Tahir and (Jacques) Rudolph.

"We want to win and that's the bottom line. We've set ourselves goals over a year ago on what we want to achieve in Test cricket.

"We're really determined to tick those boxes. We know in order to do that we got to play good cricket.

"We want to win the series and continue our brand in Test cricket.

"We still need to find what the best combination is and I've always said there might be a year or two where we try and find what the best combination is and we're still trying to find it."

The first Test between England and South Africa starts on Thursday at 12:00 (SA time).

Proteas Test squad:

Faf du Plessis (Titans, captain), Hashim Amla (Cape Cobras), Temba Bavuma (Cape Cobras), Theunis de Bruyn (Knights), Quinton de Kock (Titans), JP Duminy (Cape Cobras), Dean Elgar (Titans), Heino Kuhn (Titans), Keshav Maharaj (Dolphins), Aiden Markram (Titans), Morne Morkel (Titans), Chris Morris (Titans), Duanne Olivier (Knights), Andile Phehlukwayo (Dolphins), Vernon Philander (Cape Cobras), Kagiso Rabada (Highveld Lions)

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