There have been unsung heroes who have stepped up for the Proteas, says Faf

SOUTH AFRICA captain Faf du Plessis looked pretty chilled. Legs crossed, arms folded, leaning back in his chair, he could easily been having a coffee with some pals instead of sharing his wisdom with the assembled media in the “Committee Room” in the old Pavilion at The Oval yesterday.

He didn’t have the look of a man leading his country in a crucial Test match against England today. In truth the worries for Du Plessis are few – certainly in comparison to his counterpart Joe Root.

South Africa will make one change for the third Test – one that will make them stronger, with Kagiso Rabada coming in for Duanne Olivier.

England will make two, possibly three, with Tom Westley and Toby Roland-Jones making their debuts as a result of injuries to Gary Ballance (broken hand) and Mark Wood (bruised heel).

A look at the pitch today will determine whether Liam Dawson retains his starting spot or if Dawid Malan gets a run in the middle order. Malan will also be on debut should he play.

The South African players have spent the last few days hearing how horrible England’s batting was at Trent Bridge – while not enough credit has been given to the visiting team’s bowlers.

That’s not an unusual position for the Proteas Test side. Du Plessis believes that his team is underrated perhaps on account of the lack of star names in their squad.

“We’ve never wanted to rely on big names. You get players that are consistent and put in big performances but if you look at our last year and a half or so of Test cricket, there’s been unsung heroes all the time that have stepped up and made plays for the team when we most wanted them to,” he said.

“I will be very happy to keep being the under-rated team and by making sure that if we keep putting in small performances, from every guy in the team, we put pressure on the bigger teams around the world.”

Du Plessis found similarities between how South Africa are being viewed in England, with what they encountered in Australia last summer. There they took a shock 1-0 lead, winning in Perth with a man down for the most part.

Before that series, just like with this one, there was talk about how the absence of AB de Villiers, would be too big of a hurdle for them to overcome. When Dale Steyn injured his shoulder on the second day of the Perth Test, that hurdle was supposed to get bigger. But South Africa overcame the hurdles and won.

In addition to Steyn and De Villiers once again being absent, it was felt that the lack of a dominating personality like Graeme Smith or Jacques Kallis, might hamper South Africa now too. Dean Elgar, Heino Kuhn, Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis (capt), Temba Bavuma, Vernon Philander, chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Mahrah, Morne Morkel. Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Tom Westley, Joe Root (capt), Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Liam Dawson, Dawid Malan, Toby RolandJones, Stuart Broad, James Anderson. At Lord’s that was case, but once Du Plessis returned for the second Test, provided clarity in terms of thinking and selection, South Africa were able to transfer the doubts towards England.

“I see it as a nice thing for us to be in as the opposition,” Du Plessis mused.

“All teams don’t want to feel the pressure and you do feel the pressure when you don’t play your best cricket, that’s part of the game.

“The England cricket team will be the first to say that they will accept criticism from the last Test match and they will try and brush it off straight away and start a new game fresh and play some good cricket.

“We will certainly try and make use of pressure wherever we can.”

Root said his team had learnt from the errors committed in Nottingham, and that the lengthy time between Tests offered a good period for reflection. But how will that effect the way they bat in the third Test?

Criticism from former England captain Michael Vaughan – a close friend of Root’s – that England didn’t respect the demands of Test match batting definitely stung.

Root has been in contact with Vaughan since Trent Bridge, but knows it is actions rather than words that will prove if his team have learned their lesson.

Du Plessis can certinaly attest to that. He explained how he took over at a time “of real darkness as a Test team,” following defeats in India at the end of 2015 and on home soil against England in 2016.

“I had a vision of where I wanted us to go, and a blueprint for getting there. But getting there doesn’t always happen, you have to be patient and wait for it to unfold. Luckily things happened a lot quicker than I thought it would,” Du Plessis explained.

“I played under a lot of good leaders, spoke a lot and listened a lot about leadership and then you take little bits off everyone and you form your own identity as a captain and then you just trust it, you stay patient with it.

“If you know you’ve got the right people on board and the right processes, then hopefully the results will come.”