Do that against our bowlers – Rassie van der Dussen's challenge to England batters

Van der Dussen will be part of South Africa's Test squad for the three-match series that begins next month

Rassie van der Dussen has challenged England's Test batters to repeat their early-summer exploits against South Africa next month.

The Proteas begin a three-Test series on August 17 at Lord's, where England won the first match of the Ben Stokes era against New Zealand. Since then, they have become the first team to successfully chase scores of more than 250 four times in a year.

Van der Dussen, though, was bullish about his side's chances of putting a stop to England's momentum under Brendon McCullum. "Let's see them do that against our bowlers," he told IOL.

South Africa's bowling stocks will include seamers Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jansen and Anrich Nortje, as well as spinners Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer. When the teams last met in South Africa shortly before the outbreak of the pandemic, Nortje claimed 18 wickets in three Tests.

"I think the big challenge in playing that way is that you are not going to be consistent," added van der Dussen. "If we come out with a good bowling performance or it doesn't go well for them, there will be a few question marks if they get bowled out cheaply in a first innings, or guys get caught hitting the ball straight up or playing loosely.

"Those are the challenges for them, we have the plans, we know what has worked for us. They are coming with a slightly different mindset and strategy, which has gone well for them."

^{England's batting has been remarkable since Brendon McCullum's arrival (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)}

Those inside the England camp have insisted that nothing will calm their fearless approach under the Stokes-McCullum axis, with Stokes stating after England chased down 378 inside 78 overs to beat India that "teams may be better than us but they won't be braver than us".

Van der Dussen said: "I think the philosophy, the mindset that players talk about is one thing, but they also have players in form. Jonny Bairstow has four hundreds in the last month, which is absolutely ridiculous. Any gameplan works when guys are in form."

Bairstow is averaging 196 across his last five innings, with four centuries in the last month alone. Since the start of 2022, he has doubled his tally of Test centuries and has moved into the ICC batting rankings' top ten.

Subscribe to The Cricketer for exclusive content every day: The inside track on everything England - including leading coverage of England in India, award-winning analysis, breaking news and interviews and the only place for in-depth county coverage all year round. Plus: An ad-free app experience at your fingertips. Subscribe to thecricketer.com today for just £1.