Pietersen Looks to Pacemen to Restore England's Harmony

KP has gone clerical on us, all ecclesiastical. Keeps on about hymns. Perhaps it is that Jerusalem thing that plays at the start of each day, even when England have been rubbish. At his coronation last Monday he said that he wanted everyone singing from the same hymn sheet. Now, on the eve of his first Test as the anointed one, he insists that he, the team and, most pertinently given the fractious nature of the relationship hitherto, the coach Peter Moores are doing so.

The trouble with hymns, though, is that they have to be appropriate for the occasion. England have been using Hymns Ancient and Modern for most of this summer, especially the bowlers, and it keeps falling open at 348: "Art thou weary, art thou languid, art thou sore distressed?" Days of interminable toil in the field are not much to sing about unless it is harvest festival.

Today, however, Kevin Pietersen will be hoping for hymn 116, All Things Bright and Beautiful, as he tries to galvanize a flagging side into something that will compete strongly with and perhaps overcome South Africa and prevent a humiliating 3-0 defeat. It will not be easy, but he will have 10 other players alongside him with whom he feels comfortable (or so he says), something that was certainly denied Michael Vaughan at Headingley anyway. Both the new captain and the coach appear to agree on the structure of the side, which involves a reversion to a five-man attack but a consequent weakening of the batting. For struggling sides the optimum number of players is always one more than the permitted.

It means no place for Ravi Bopara, brought into the squad instead of Vaughan. This is an easier decision than it would have been had Vaughan not resigned and had the same format been needed: who would have gone then? It demands a shuffle of the batting order, however, which in itself is no bad thing and certainly can have as much effect as changing the personnel. So Ian Bell is to be given the chance to show some maturity at No3, where there really is no hiding place, and Paul Collingwood, on the back of his career-saving century at Edgbaston, is at five.

The onus then has been placed on Andrew Flintoff at six to score big runs rather than cameos. The captain is confident he can do it, and Flintoff is said to be chuffed, which may be a catalyst in itself. With Tim Ambrose at seven and the returning Stuart Broad at eight, there is a sting in the tail, although the order is nowhere near as secure-looking as it was in the last Test.

Broad then it is who comes into the final XI to replace Vaughan, having been omitted from the last Test for reasons of recuperation and bowling form. At Headingley he had looked spent, his bowling not having progressed at a rate commensurate with his batting. The Oval may suit him more, though, with its habitual bounce (not quite what it was but encouraging for a tall bowler), and Pietersen's task may be to discourage him from attempting to be something he is not, a bang-it-in strike bowler, and concentrate on repetition.

Instead the captain will have at his disposal a second genuinely fast and hostile bowler in Steve Harmison, who has not played a Test since being omitted in New Zealand after the fiasco in Hamilton. Through having a proper workload at Durham he has regained his rhythm, is bowling with real pace and venom and has reaped the rewards in terms of wickets.

Whether he would have played had Ryan Sidebottom been declared fit is a moot point, but it ought to have been a simple decision. Sidebottom, despite holding the attack together for a year, missed Headingley because of a back injury and was allowed to return at Edgbaston when quite plainly still not 100%, which showed all too starkly in his action and his performance. For that, someone - selectors, coach, team doctor, the player himself? - was culpable, given that measures have been in place for a while to ensure such a situation does not arise. Given that he missed one game through lack of fitness, and ought to have missed the second, it was a mystery how his name even appeared in the squad for this Test.

Now, though, comes a huge test of character for Harmison. At his best he is a devastatingly nasty bowler, of great pace, able to send the ball up into the rib cage. He should be bowling to no fewer than two short legs, one square and one behind. He should not be encouraged to try to bowl a "good" length. Length is for wimps. Length makes the ball come out of his hands as if he is throwing confetti at a wedding. With anything like bounce in the pitch, there is only one good area in which he should bowl and it is not drivable, that is for certain.

If Pietersen can fire him up, and unleash him in harness with his mate Flintoff, then we could be in for some fireworks. It will take some guts, though, for Harmison to shrug off the opprobrium that has been heaped on him for the past couple of years. And that will be as big a challenge as anything. Maybe KP can dig out the hymn sheet again specially for him: He Who Would Valiant Be.