Wright hopes to be given chance to shine (From Salisbury Journal)

Wright hopes to be given chance to shine

7:03am Wednesday 12th September 2012 in National Sport News © Press Association 2013

England will hope to gain some momentum as they complete the home leg of their preparations for their World Twenty20 title defence at Edgbaston on Wednesday night.

They take on South Africa for one final time this summer before flying out to Sri Lanka for the fourth edition of the shortest format's international tournament. After an abandoned contest at Old Trafford on Monday, England head into this third NatWest International Twenty20 trailing 1-0 as a result of their loss at the Emirates Durham ICG last Saturday.

Luke Wright is likely to be given another opportunity to cement a place in the side after replacing the out-of-form Ravi Bopara in Manchester.

The Sussex all-rounder, playing his first international match in 15 months, showed a brief glimmer of form in what play did occur in the short slot allowed by the weather.

The 27-year-old claimed a wicket in one tidy over and hit a quick 14 before holing out in England's aborted reply. That is likely to mean Bopara will remain on the sidelines after the decision was finally taken to omit him.

The Essex batsman has endured a string of low scores since pulling out of the second Test against South Africa in July for personal reasons.

With no member of the England side or coaching staff having spoken to media since Saturday's game in Durham, there have been no clues as to whether other changes might be made.

Michael Lumb, Danny Briggs and Tim Bresnan are the three members of the 15-man squad yet to feature in the series but England do still have two warm-up games in Colombo to fine-tune before the World Twenty20.

Turning the tables on South Africa in Birmingham would also salvage some pride for England after a mentally bruising summer against the Proteas.

England were beaten in the Test series 2-0 and were consequently knocked off the top of the world rankings, while they were denied success in the one-day international series in the last match, with the sides settling for a 2-2 draw.