England aware of Mendis threat

England's batsmen have been swotting up on how to tackle Sri Lanka matchwinner Ajantha Mendis ahead of their initiation on Friday.

Mendis, 24, has made mincemeat of teams in his first appearance against them, as South Africa discovered on Tuesday, and England are wary ahead of starting their own Champions Trophy campaign under Wanderers' floodlights.

"The guys have ideas," Flower said. "Seeing him for the first time is surprising, but our guys have had a good look of footage of him. They have also spoken to other people who have had success against him so they are as prepared as they can be without actually playing against him."

Such is his potency that the worry is batters become defensive to counter him.

"That is a danger," admitted Flower. "But I think batting is always a balance between attack and defence and each individual has to find that balance the best he can."

England begin the first of three Group B games in poor condition on the field, following a 6-1 thrashing by Australia, and also under-prepared for the altitude, according to Flower.

"I don't think the acclimatisation we have done is quite enough purely in physical terms," Flower said.

"But as soon as we arrived we had a little run out to test how our guys were reacting at altitude, and for them to feel it.

"To be honest that is the least of things on which we have to focus - we have got skills to deliver."