Mark Butcher gave England some much-needed good news when he declared his damaged left wrist, which kept him out of the third Test, greatly improved. He is confident of resuming practice when the team moves on to Johannesburg today.

Speaking yesterday to Butcher and Robert Key, his stand-in who gave a mixed performance in Cape Town, it was easy to detect their different moods. After a miserable week on the sidelines knowing that Key had it in his power to virtually end his international career, Butcher was upbeat. Key was rueful, no doubt aware of Butcher’s improved condition and conscious that he had missed an opportunity to cement his Test place with a big score last week.

Butcher, who had a second cortisone injection on Thursday, said: “I feel good. The swelling has reduced massively and the pain seems to have disappeared. I’m confident I’ll be taking part in practice. I might get to the nets on Monday and not be able to bat properly, in which case there’s no decision to be made, but if I get through that without significant pain, I’ll be available for selection. I’m hoping Michael (Vaughan) and Duncan (Fletcher) have to choose between us again.”

Butcher knows that if there is a choice to be made, the management will probably back him, as they have done in the past, especially as the batting failed so comprehensively without him and the game was lost. Key has played 13 Tests and scored more than 650 runs, but owes his opportunities to injuries to others. If Butcher was the preferred choice four weeks ago, it would be odd if he still wasn’t now. Fletcher has tended to favour experience over youth.

Key’s frustration was plain. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that (being perpetual reserve),” he said. “It’s tough to sit on the side and watch the boys play. You never feel part of it. It’s down to me to go out there and cement the place. I had the chance to do it the other day and mucked it up. Hopefully if I get another chance I won’t.”

Key says his first-innings duck — out hooking at Shaun Pollock — had more to do with being overawed than underprepared: “What I struggled with more than anything was the occasion. Even carrying the drinks in the first two Tests couldn’t prepare me for the atmosphere of a packed house at Cape Town. It was a bit of a shock. You forget about the atmosphere and how quickly things happen (in Test cricket). Nothing can recreate that.”

Butcher damaged his wrist in the gym early in the tour. He played through the injury to score 79 in the first Test, but by the second Test had it strapped. He scored few runs and arguably shouldn’t have played, but he knew he couldn’t afford to give up his place lightly. By Cape Town, he had no choice but to drop out. On the eve of the game he couldn’t wield his bat at practice. A call was put through to the team bus that was on its way to the ground, and Vaughan told Key he was playing.

“I didn’t quite realise how bad Butch was, and I don’t think he did,” Key said. “He thought he’d wake up in the morning, have a jab and be all right. So it was a bit of a surprise. But I knew I had a chance so I was able to prepare.”

Butcher, a veteran of 71 Tests, knows this could yet be the end: “For me, this injury might turn out to be a disaster. I’m contracted until the end of September. I know I almost did myself more harm than good by getting 70-odd in Port Elizabeth than if I hadn’t got any and not done my wrist harm. The injury has come at a bad time again. Personally it’s very important I get back in the side. I hate sitting out and missing Test matches.”

For all the differences between them — left-hander, right-hander, big man, small man — there is one common strand: both have a chronic tendency to lose their wicket to daft shots. Both apparently lack the concentration and patience to grind out scores in the way required of a No 3 in Tests, and it could cost England dear against Australia.

If both continue to struggle, Vaughan may eventually seek to solve his own problems with the bat by moving up the order from four to three and nearer to the hard ball he used to strike so sweetly.

Key’s self-recrimination was directed mainly at the way he got out in the second innings after battling his way to 41 in 3Å hours on a slow, difficult pitch. Eager to dictate terms to South Africa’s left-arm spinner, Nicky Boje, he danced down the pitch, was beaten by the turn and stumped by yards.

“That was probably the most reserved I’ve been against a spinner for the past four years since John Inverarity came to Kent and told us to slog them out of the park,” he said. “I always feel that if you let a spinner bowl at you, he gets into a rhythm. You have to bully them a bit. Nicky came over the wicket for a couple of overs and I just kicked him away, but it wasn’t turning that much from round the wicket. The ball I missed was the first one that really turned.

“It’s going to be tough now playing spin again in the way I have in the past. I hope it’s something I can overcome. A lot of my runs last summer came off spin, and nine times out of 10 you get it right. A year or two ago I would have kamikaze’d it a hell of a lot earlier. You’ve got to get runs when you get the chance, and that’s something I’ve been a bit slack at, really.”

Butcher and Key have not let their rivalry spoil their friendship, although the strain must be telling. “I had friends on the phone texting in saying they hoped he got out for nought (in Cape Town),” Butcher said of Key. “But I like him. He’s a good lad and a good player. I hope he scores runs as much as any of the other batters scores runs.”

Key accepts that Butcher’s seniority and record justify him being given first chance: “If I was in his position, I’d probably hope for the same. I can see the argument from both sides. But whoever out of the two of us plays is going to be under a hell of a lot more pressure than anybody else. When Butch first got injured last summer, he was excellent with me. He made a real effort to make sure I had a good opportunity to prepare. It’s something I really respected him for, and he deserves the same back.”