Graphic: Straighten up and fly right

Not since the beginning of the Ashes series three years ago has there been such anticipation about the start of a Test series. Yesterday, Michael Vaughan suggested that a series against South Africa is “nearly up there with the Ashes” and if the England captain overstated the case a touch, it was partly in recognition of the fact that the bland fare offered up by 19 consecutive matches against New Zealand will be replaced by something much richer and more varied for the palate.

Bare statistics - two wins, two defeats and two draws in series since 1994 - do little to encapsulate the often fraught and always compelling cricket that these two teams have produced since South Africa's readmission, bookended by the raw emotion of South Africa's return to Lord's 14 years ago and emotion of a different kind the previous time the sides met in a full series. It was then, at the end of the South Africa tour in 2004-05, that Kevin Pietersen gave notice of his outrageous talent and his strength of mind, too, as he responded to accusations of treachery from Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, and the watching public in such an impressive way, with three centuries in the one-day series.

It is this potential for the occasional personality clash, as much as the compelling nature of the cricket, that has given this series some extra spice. The captains have previous, having fallen out over various issues on England's most recent tour to South Africa. But yesterday, as they faced the press, they did so with the air of a pair of ageing rock stars, unable to comprehend the wild excesses of their past.

Vaughan was the first to offer an olive branch. “We've had our confrontations in the past and we'll continue to play it tough,” he said. “But I've matured, he's matured and I hugely respect the job he's done in very difficult circumstances.”

Smith may well have been listening in, so similar were his sentiments. In truth, both are weary of answering the same questions, so yesterday had the feel of a phoney war. Both are eager for the talking to stop and the action to start, but it will not take much to light the blue touchpaper again.

In the past, the mere sight of Pietersen wearing the three lions has been enough to send Smith into a tailspin. But when a captain loses his focus, his team are liable to do the same, and Smith would be well advised to keep his emotions in check and his brain in gear when Pietersen comes to the crease. Vaughan suggested that Pietersen “has a glint in his eye” and expects him to have a “wonderful series”; Smith felt that Pietersen would be “hugely motivated” but also vulnerable to pressure and would have to answer the serious questions posed by South Africa's pace attack.

Pietersen can ratchet up his unpopularity levels in South Africa by helping England to overturn an appalling recent record at Lord's against South Africa, where they have lost three matches on the bounce, all by considerable margins. There are reasons to think that, come the end of the match, that will be the case.

For all the talk - and Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, has been particularly bullish this week - England must surely be the better prepared team. South Africa have had a couple of rain-interrupted outings against weakened county teams and little or no opportunity to practise outside at Lord's, so enabling bowlers such as Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel to get used to the vagaries of the slope. Only in their imaginations have they played at Lord's. Smith, by all accounts, looked in dreadful touch against Middlesex at Uxbridge and said yesterday that he felt a million miles away from the kind of form he showed when scoring consecutive double hundreds on his previous tour to England. His fellow batsmen would also prefer the sun on their backs.

The forecast for the match is for showers and the pitch has been given little or no oxygen during the past two days. Such conditions are not sure to favour England - after all, a ball that swings at 90mph is more dangerous than one that swings at 85mph - but the England bowlers will enjoy these conditions more than if the sun does show itself later in the series. It is an attack that requires some help, either from the atmosphere or the pitch, to be at its best.

Vaughan's repeated use of the word “skilful” to describe his attack was an attempt to emphasise this point of difference between the teams. Not that it is an attack short of motivation. Two days ago, Arthur suggested that the shadow of Andrew Flintoff would loom large over the England players during this Test, something that may play to South Africa's advantage.

Yesterday we witnessed not the shadow but the real thing, as Flintoff used a morning off in between Lancashire commitments to request a chance to practise with the team. His presence owed more to logistics than any desire to pour scorn on Arthur's reasoning, but it was a good opportunity to show how sanguine the dressing-room is about his impending return. Vaughan was right to scoff at the notion that the sight of the all-rounder would be enough to send those under scrutiny - principally James Anderson, Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood - into their shells. “This is international sport,” the captain said. “The pressure is on and you have to be able to deal with that. Andrew Flintoff is an exceptional cricketer; we want him back and he's not far away.”

Although I expect England to start the series strongly, they will need Flintoff in the team and back to his best if they are not to suffer indigestion by its end.

Masters at Lord’s

0-3 England’s win-loss record at Lord’s against South Africa since their readmission to Test cricket in 1992, by 356 runs, ten wickets and an innings and 92 runs

5 The number of times Makhaya Ntini has dismissed Michael Vaughan in Tests. However, Vaughan has scored 191 runs off him from 298 balls

37.07 Jacques Kallis’s Test batting average in England. In 13 innings he has scored one century. His overall Test average against England is 47.06

72.22 Kevin Pietersen’s Test average at Lord’s, with three centuries and two fifties in ten innings

Exclusive statistics from Cricinfo.com

How they line up

England: M P Vaughan (Yorkshire, captain), A N Cook (Essex), A J Strauss (Middlesex), K P Pietersen (Hampshire), I R Bell (Warwickshire), P D Collingwood (Durham), T R Ambrose (Warwickshire, wicketkeeper), R J Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire), S C Broad (Nottinghamshire), J M Anderson (Lancashire), M S Panesar (Northamptonshire).

South Africa (from): G C Smith (captain), N D McKenzie, H M Amla, J H Kallis, A G Prince, A B de Villiers, M V Boucher (wicketkeeper), P L Harris, M Morkel, M Ntini, D W Steyn, A Nel.

Umpires: D J Harper (Australia) and B F Bowden (New Zealand). Third umpire: N J Llong. Match referee: J J Crowe (New Zealand).

Television: Live on Sky Sports 1, from 10am.