London, July 14 : Complimenting Stuart Broad as England's most improved performer, Proteas batsman and now wicket keeper AB de Villiers has said that the Nottinghamshire pacer can replace Andrew Flintoff to trouble the South African batsmen.

Ahead of a series billed as a battle of the bowlers, de Villiers admitted the batsmen could find life extremely tough.

He is delighted that he won't have to worry about the threat of Flintoff anymore after Freddie's heroics in 2008, but is wary that Broad can send the ball down at an equal pace and from the same height and will be just as much of a handful, The Daily Mirror reports.

"Flintoff is not there any more, thanks goodness for that. He was one of the best bowlers I ever faced but Broady has improved a lot. And there's Jimmy Anderson and Tim Bresnan - they are all good," said de Villiers.

"They're a very balanced attack - even Graeme Swanny, who's a very attacking off-spin bowler. He takes a lot of wickets so we've got to be watchful for all of those.

"This series has probably the two best bowling line-ups in the world, and both batting line-ups are going to have a lot to think about over the next few months," he said

De Villiers will be taking over the gloves from Mark Boucher following his mentor's freak eye injury against Somerset. (ANI)