De Villiers impressed by England rise

England’s transformation from “rock bottom” at the last World Cup to being among the favourites to win the Champions Trophy on home soil has earned the respect of teams around the world, according to AB De Villiers.

The Champions Trophy starts on June 1, when England play Bangladesh, but before then there is a three-match series against South Africa.

They arrived in Hove on Wednesday night for today’s warm-up game against Sussex, and pose a real challenge for England, being the world’s No 1-ranked team in one-day cricket. But since the 2015 World Cup England have lost only one series at home, a 3-2 defeat by world champions Australia that went to a decider.

England are favourites to win the Champions Trophy and Ben Stokes is back from the Indian Premier League, where he impressed some of the world’s best, including De Villiers.

“I remember watching the 2015 World Cup thinking they hit rock bottom,” said De Villiers, who captains the one-day team but hands over to Faf du Plessis for the Test series. “The way they came back from that earned a lot of respect around the world.

“Stokes is a fantastic cricketer with bat and ball. He definitely has got something special about him. He is a stand-out player for them.”

South Africa had their first practice yesterday, and De Villiers suffered a nasty blow on the knee. He has two warm-up games, here and in Northampton on Sunday, before the first ODI next Wednesday at Headingley. He insists he is still committed to Test cricket. “I am definitely not out of it,” he said.