The ongoing tour of England has been a complete disaster for South Africa. After being decimated in the ODI’s and T20I’s, the first Test at Lord’s witnessed another downfall of the Proteas.
Despite missing three big names in the form of skipper Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers and pacer Dale Steyn, the Proteas were expected to combat hard in the game.
However, the Test couldn’t even go into the fifth day, as Moeen Ali’s disciplined off-spin turned to be way too much for the visitors. With skipper Faf du Plessis back in the fray for the second Test at Nottingham, he is perceived as the team’s only hope.
Post the second Test and addressing his first conference in England, the Test captain expressed his desire to turn things around for South Africa. It was under his leadership, that South Africa won successive away series’ in Australia and New Zealand.
“It’s a pretty straightforward thing to focus on this week – get your basics right and do things consistently better for longer,” du Plessis said. “You will have moments in the game when you put pressure on the opposition and then they put pressure on you and then you wait for your turn to put pressure back on them.”
The right-hander spoke about the need to focus on the next game and not the past.
“It’s really important that after this Test, we don’t fall into a mental hangover of the tour we have had so far,” du Plessis said. “That will be one of my most important jobs and the senior players this week, how to make sure we stay well away from that and focus on the next Test match.”
Du Plessis also mentioned that he would love to see pacer Kagiso Rabada maintain his aggression and not get bogged down by the ban on him by the ICC. “I would never say to KG change the way that you are. It’s important that he plays the way that he plays the game. Every guy within cricket needs your natural instinct and personality to come out because that creates the best you,” he added.