The sporting year of 2008 has already brought some glorious moments - Tiger Woods winning the US Open thanks to some magical putting, Spain winning Euro 2008 with spell-binding football and Rafael Nadal seeing off Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final.

The upcoming Test series between England and South Africa could be added to that list as two of the best Test-playing nations behind Australia battle it out before both face the Aussies in the coming year.

Following the success of the IPL and the introduction of Sir Allen Stanford’s $20million Twenty20 challenge, Test cricket has never been under so much pressure. This series could well provide the shot in the arm that five-day cricket needs to assert its status as the number one form of the game despite the huge amounts of money being invested in the shorter format.

South Africa come into this series with strength in both their batting department and from their bowlers, who make up a fearsome cricketing unit. Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini and Morne Morkel will all be chomping at the bit to get stuck into an England batting line-up that hasn’t hit 400 in an innings for 12 months.

All three bowlers and Andre Nel, if selected, are pacemen of the old-fashioned variety. Michael Vaughan has compared them in recent days to the famous West Indian triumvirate of Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall, and it will be fascinating to see how they perform in the four-Test series.

The Proteas’ batting line-up also boasts a number of star performers. Captain Graeme Smith will be relishing a return to England after he made double centuries in consecutive matches in 2003. And Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla, Neil McKenzie, Ashwell Prince and AB De Villiers are all capable of taking the game away from England.

Vaughan’s side, as ever, come into this series seemingly on the brink of either establishing themselves for the next Ashes series, which starts in a year, or struggling to fulfil their potential. The spectre of Andrew Flintoff hangs around the current team which is unchanged for the sixth consecutive Test match.

England have just proved their dominance over New Zealand in a two Test series, and with Flintoff close to a recall for the second Test all eyes will be on Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood. Bell almost always fails to step up to the plate when needed but England’s one-day captain has been well short of form in recent months.

The only other potential player to drop out could be James Anderson but ultimately this should make these players lift their game in the first Test at Lord’s, starting on Thursday.

Monty Panesar could be a key man for England as South Africa traditionally struggle with spin and yet more heroic performances from Ryan Sidebottom will be needed if England are to prevail. Above all, though, England’s batsmen need to produce big scores once they have played themselves in. This includes Kevin Pietersen who will be desperate to play aggressively and successfully against the country of his birth as well as his (according to the press) sworn enemy in Graeme Smith.

The series has the makings of a classic. The bald truth is that England will have to up their game considerably to match a very talented South African side. With Flintoff and the bowlers from the Ashes in 2005 pushing for returns to the England side this could be a defining summer for England, just as the series in 2003 set up new belief in the England camp for that famous summer of 2005.