India has registered the first victory in the three-match Test series against South Africa. Now both the teams are heading toward the second Test match which will be played from 10th October in Pune. Faf du Plessis talks to reporters about the team’s preparation.
The visitors faced difficulty in Visakhapatnam and lost the first test match. The skipper has toured India earlier and opines that he knows Indian conditions better. He expressed that Indian pitches support the spinner and excepting that Pune’s pitch will also have the same conditions.
He expresses that India has a hot climate so the players need to be fresh to play for the next five days.
“I know Indian conditions quite well, the turf is a little bit redder here and in terms of that, it is generally more spinning condition. So, expecting the ball to spin more than the first Test,” Faf du Plessis told reporters.
“Extremely hot conditions, we spent a lot of time in the field. And the thinking is to be fresh as I said in a previous Test match that there is not enough time to find your answers in the nets now,” Du Plessis said.
Faf de Plessis: We always make a comeback
Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal had a good start in the first innings. The Proteas has no answer to both the players. Mayank hit a double ton whereas Rohit Sharma scored a century. Rohit not only performed well in the first innings but his bat didn’t stop in the second innings too.
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Keshav Maharaj was only the bowler who helped the visitors to pick wickets. Faf du Plessis commented about the team and strategy. He said that they can’t make big changes but trust the players.
“The work has been done before the series so it’s about trusting that. Today everyone got the good practice, we took a little bit longer than usual as there were only two nets available. The general feeling in the camp is to be fresh for the five days,” he added.
South Africa is playing its first Test series after the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 and it is their first series in the inaugural ICC World Test Championship 2019-21. Faf du Plessis has claimed that his team has the ability to make a comeback. So he hopes that they will win next match.
“I think it is obvious in saying that in every Test match we would like to start well. Even start a Test match ahead of India that would be nice. We as a team are very resilient and we always make a comeback,” Faf du Plessis said.
WTC is complicated
India has added 40 points after winning the first Test match at Visakhapatnam. The host is on the top of the points table of this Championship with 160 points. Faf du Plessis is not convinced with the distribution of the marks in WTC.
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“It is complicated. Obviously the shorter the Test series the more points you get. In two Tests you get 120 points and in the five-match series, you have to win 5-0 to get 120 points which is a bit harder. I have noticed that in this thing you always find holes and flaws in the systems, it is never gonna be a perfect system.”