Whole New Ball Game
Pietersen - Will Be In The Spotlight.
Nasser Hussain says everything will change for Kevin Pietersen when he leads England out at The Oval.
Being England captain is not just a different ball game, it is a massively different ball game.
The first thing Kevin Pietersen will feel when he wakes up on the first day of his first Test as captain is immense pride.
That will strike him when he walks out on to The Oval and the bloke on the tannoy says 'and now leading his side out is England cricket captain Kevin Pietersen'.
That brings great pride for yourself, for your family and for everyone who has ever been involved in your cricket - and that explains why Michael Vaughan broke down when he announced his retirement.
There will also be a huge swell of responsibility that goes with the job and of course a lot of nerves. You realise that a camera is on you all the time, that your players are looking at you all the time and your body language, every gesture, is important and you are an ambassador for your country on and off the field.
You have to change, there's no getting away from it. All of a sudden you have to know about the laws of the game and you have to consider the spirit of the game. Whereas before you just used to play the game, now you have to understand the spirit in which it is played.
It is a lot to take on. That's why the England captaincy has shelf-life and that's why after 50 games you end up a wreck like Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain and that's why you end up emotional like Michael Vaughan. It's not an easy job, if it was anyone could do it - and I would still be doing it!
I think Michael has done the right thing to take some time out from the game and I think he needs to come back with a clear mind. As for his future as an England player, I would probably just wait and see.
Let him bat for a while for Yorkshire, let him get some runs - and I do think he will get some runs - and I do think he will be back in the England side. He'll come back and bat at five probably.
I'm sure Ravi Bopara will play at The Oval because once again, I can't see how they get five bowlers in.
I've said it a hundred times this summer but unless they play a better batsman as wicketkeeper, like Matt Prior, then they've got to stick with a four-man attack.
I think now the series has been lost you have to treat it as a one-off Test and play six batsmen with Andrew Flintoff at seven. I suppose you could play Stuart Broad and go down that road, but I honestly don't know.
Bopara will be nervous. The Oval has down the years been a graveyard for one-Test wonders and although Ravi is not that, it is a place where he will be under pressure to come in and perform and get on tour.
I hope the England selectors have said to him 'you're here, enjoy yourself, you're not playing for your place', I hope they have given him the sort of comfort blanket that has been given to the other batters in the side. If Ravi gets that, I think it's the right time for him to be playing.
He's the right age, he's the right guy, he's in form, it's a good pitch. I just hope and pray he gives himself a good chance.
That is the only real change to the 13 but that is nothing to do with it being a cosy little club or too comfortable for the established England players. It is more to do with the fact that at Edgbaston, they played some very good cricket.
They played a little bit of good cricket at Headingley and Lord's in fact, but there has just been one vital ingredient missing - first innings runs.
We seem to have always been playing catch-up - and against a side of South Africa's quality, you just can't afford to do that.