England management hopeful of James Anderson being fit for South Africa Tests

Anderson was forced off the field after bowling only four overs during the Ashes opener. The 37-year-old was also sidelined for the two New Zealand Tests, the first of which will be played in Mount Maunganui from 22 November.

After having trained at Manchester City's home ground, the Etihad stadium, last month in a bid to recover, Anderson will now be heading for the training camp in Potchefstroom, and if cleared, will feature in the first of the four Tests – the Boxing Day game in Centurion.

"Jimmy is going out to Potchefstroom," Ashley Giles, the managing director of England's men's cricket, told the BBC. "We're hopeful. We think he is on track, which is great. The medical team are happy. The older you get, these things linger longer. We felt no point forcing it for this short tour.

"It will be interesting to see the pitches we play on in South Africa. I think they'll be green, and they'll go for a bowler war and take us on. It's not something I'd take on with Jofra Archer and Jimmy Anderson, but it will be an exciting series."

Mark Wood, Olly Stone and Jamie Overton will be the other bowlers to take part in the camp, which will be under the supervision of Jonathan Trott, Glen Chapple, Neil Killeen and, subject to finalising a deal as bowling consultant, Darren Gough.

England had triumphed 2-1 in the Tests when they last toured South Africa, in 2015-16, and it remains one of their only two overseas wins in the last 11 away series. While they've excelled as a white-ball unit in the period, Giles laid special emphasis on maintaining the right balance across formats and marked the away Ashes win in Australia as a long-term goal, something they haven't done since the 2010-11 triumph under Andrew Strauss.

"Whatever people say, there was definitely more focus on our white-ball teams in the past few years," Giles said. "We're not moving everything to Test cricket, we've got to find a balance on all forms that are important to us. We'll see a more traditional way of playing; playing the long game with ball or bat. Sometimes with ball, you have to stick in, refer to plan A, and if in doubt, go back to plan A.

"That messaging goes into the county system. There was a focus on 2019 and trying to win the World Cup. We've seen the increase in quality of short-form county cricket. We've got this goal - to win in Australia - and we need a system underneath than can produce better players capable of doing it."