Faf steps up and wants England to feel pressure
PROTEAS CAPTAIN Faf du Plessis certainly is held inr high esteem by his men, but he’s faced the biggest test of his leadership acumen this week.
As the captain he already carries his fair share of responsibility and yesterday he admitted he’d felt the need to take on even more in the absence of coach Russell Domingo, who had to return to South Africa following his mother’s death.
“That stuff that’s been going wrong off the field, is not stuff you can plan for – they’re unforeseen circumstances, said the man likely to bat in the key No 4 spot after missing the first Test at Lord’s.
“I didn’t expect (my) baby to come a little earlier, Russell’s not planned for the tragedy with his family, and then KG (Rabada, now under suspension) ... this is a huge character test for us.”
Comparisons were drawn with the build-up to the third Test against Australia in Adelaide late last year when there was also a lot of distraction for the players. On that occasion, the team had already won the series – here they’re 1-0 down, they’re without a key member of the attack and there are concerns over their batting.
That’s plenty for any captain to take on board and there are many expectations about how Du Plessis will engineer a turnaround in South Africa’s fortunes.
“It feels like a normal game for me. I just feel there was more required from me this week to step up and make sure I lead the team the way I’ve been doing.
“The stuff I’ve been saying, the stuff we’ve been doing has not been different than before. It’s about making the players understand they can trust our processes that we’ve been doing the last while.
“We’ve been really successful at Test cricket, we understand where we made mistakes in the first game, it’s about how well we respond to that. There are a lot of references we can take... that Australian series, there was a lot of tests for us as a team, it’s about knowing we can do it, and going into the next game and doing it.”
Du Plessis acknowledged it would be tougher for the South Africans in the second Test because England now also had confidence on their side after winning at Lord’s. “There were a lot of times England found themselves under pressure, the disappointing thing was how easily they got out of it,” said Du Plessis
“We didn’t take our chances. Catches will be dropped, that’s not the issue, it’s how you respond to them and we didn’t do that well. After lunch on the first day, watching from the side, I could see it was a little too easy for England. When they threw a punch back at us we just sat back and let it happen and expecting something to change and it never did. That’s where we let the game slip.”
JP Duminy has been dropped from the starting XI for the first time in a year, following a string of inconsistent performances which have seen him average just 34 in his last 12 Tests.
Duanne Olivier will play his second Test as Rabada’s replacement, while South Africa were going to give some more thought to which of Theunis de Bruyn or Chris Morris to select.
That decision would be based on conditions. The pitch appeared to have a lush grass covering and this venue does have a reputation of giving seamers assistance.
England captain Joe Root, confirmed the home team will play the same 11 as the one that won by 211 runs at Lord’s.