South Africa v England: Failing trio face uncertain future ahead of Headingley Test '“ Alastair Cook

England's players ponder their 280 run-defeat at the hands of hosts South Africa at Centurion. Picture: AP Photo/Themba Hadebe.

The tourists lost seven wickets for 49 in just over an hour to slump to a 280-run defeat in Centurion, as Kagiso Rabada ran riot for the second innings in a row, taking 6-32 to finish with 13 wickets in the match.

England will rightly celebrate a 2-1 win over a Proteas side who went into the series as the world’s No 1 team, but there are major question marks over several of the side.

Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow excelled with the bat but their efforts have not been matched elsewhere in the order.

Cook has been among the strugglers but, as he closes in on 10,000 Test runs, his credentials are not in question.

The same cannot be said of Alex Hales, James Taylor or Nick Compton. All three ended the tour on a low note – averaging 17, 26.57 and 30.62 respectively – and cannot be certain of lining up when England welcome Sri Lanka in May.

Cook did not sugar the pill when he assessed the trio’s performances. “It’s been tough batting conditions and it’s not been easy, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions in our top seven batting,” said Cook.

“I think, at the end of the day, results matter and your end column of runs is absolutely vital. So to say they’ve totally convinced me would be wrong, but there have been flashes.

“There’s certainly places up for grabs. Myself and Trevor (Bayliss, head coach) and the selectors will have to sit down and discuss that because the output we’ve had in this series hasn’t been good enough if we’re trying to get to  No 1 in the world.”

England were at least partial authors of their own downfall.

Taylor departed to the last ball of the third over, caught after a Morne Morkel lifter grazed a glove.

Root was dropped off his first ball of the morning before lunging at Dane Piedt to send a thick edge straight to Dean Elgar.

Bairstow sent a high catch into the hands of AB de Villiers at slip but Rabada overstepped. He returned to his mark, kept his foot behind the line and found the edge again with his very next ball.

Stokes’s tour ended when he pulled Morkel to deep midwicket and Rabada wrapped things up in short order.

Woakes was held by De Kock, Broad drove loosely to slip and last man James Anderson bagged a golden duck, trapped lbw.