England team picked for South Africa

Earlier this week, the England selectors announced the Test and ODI squads for the tough winter tour to South Africa. Ravi Bopara, Owais Shah and Steve Harmison all missed out on both squads, and many expect Harmison to retire from internationals after his omission from the team.
For those who are in the team, however, must feel they've got a chance against the number one team in the world. They famously beat them in the group stages of this year's ICC Champions Trophy, and were victors in the Ashes. I feel this England team is going somewhere and this group of players can go far, if they can be consistently good and take chances whenever they come. The first XI is easy to predict, which is a good sign of consistency from the selectors. The only area of the XI that will cause Geoff Miller to furrow his brow is the troublesome middle order. You've got many options as a selector, but that will just make things harder.
I personally think Ian Bell should have that number 3 spot, simply because he's got the experience, and the time out he had from international cricket helped ease the pressure and stress that was caused by indifferent form. He came into the last three Ashes tests and scored two half-centuries, a decent return. I would like him to try and build on those fifties and start converting them into 100s, which he doesn't do enough of. He has 8 centuries from 29 halves and an average of 39. Not bad. But as a top order player, you want a conversion rate of fifties to hundreds that's at least 50%. Bell's quite far away from that with a conversion rate of only 27%, and it would be good to see him play at his best against South Africa. He is so pleasing on the eye when he's in full flow.
At number four, I would obviously put in Kevin Pietersen. We need at least one top-drawer player, and with Freddie gone, we need KP. He has a brilliant Test average of 49, and has scored more centuries than halves. That fact tells you he's a top-class player. However, there are doubts about his fitness, so who would I put in for him? In the Ashes, it was Collingwood, who was moved up the order, with limited success. I would put in Jonathan Trott (who would be at number 5 in my team anyway) to go in at number four. He impressed in the two innings he played against Australia, and showed good temperament at the crease, with all the Aussies' efforts of trying to unsettle him. He got his hundred, and needs to build from there. A good debut is always a confidence boost, and he will try his upmost to get some more big scores.
At number five I would've had Trott, but if KP's injured then Collingwood will come in. He has great experience, but has been out of sorts in the Test arena. He needs to take his very good one day form into Tests, and that will be the challenge. I wouldn't have him in the team if KP is fit, because I think there are better batsmen than him, and we don't particularly need his off cutters.
At 6, I would put Prior, who has also looked a bit shaky, and Broad at seven. Stuart has great potential with the bat, and putting him at number 7 would help him to take his talent further. He would have greater chance of scoring runs, and would bat with better batsmen than he usually does. His bowling has greatly improved, and he found his match with length balls. The other four bowlers would be: Swann, Anderson, Onions and Sidebottom. I would include Sidebottom because he deserves an inclusion, and there aren't really any other bowlers up to standard. In addittion, talisman Gibbs is prone to left-arm seamers swinging the ball in at him. That would be my team, with Strauss and Cook opening the batting. The selectors may well choose differently, especially with the dilemma of including or not including Paul Collingwood.