Four years on: the Faf evolution
DESPITE being the central figure in a flare-up around AB de Villiers’s run-out that set a tense World Cup quarter-final alight in Dhaka a year earlier, Faf du Plessis arrived in Australia four years ago an unknown figure.
Outside of Pretoria, nobody really knew who he was. In fact, a seasoned columnist wrote ahead of the 2012 tour: “Graeme Smith’s No 1-ranked team comes without the usual bench strength... there is no specialist batsman in reserve.”
Anonymity allowed Du Plessis, who had yet to make his Test debut, to slip into hotels behind superstars like Smith, Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn, AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla without too much of a fuss. How things have changed with South Africa’s return Down Under. Du Plessis is now the leader of the Proteas and a stalwart in the batting line-up.
Hotel staff at the Intercontinental Hotel in Adelaide would also not have forgotten him in a hurry. That was where Du Plessis returned after completing one of the most extraordinary Test innings, in 2012.
He blunted the Australian attack for 466 minutes – that’s 14 minutes shy of eight hours – to save the second Test of that 2012 tour for the Proteas, and scoring a century in the process. Given that he had done this on debut, it is needless to say the celebrations carried on long into the night.
“Australia were dominant for the first two Tests and then moving into that last (one), we finally had an opportunity to be on top,” he said.
Du Plessis has certainly been central to plenty of change in the Proteas camp. Just a few months ago, after an ODI implosion in the Caribbean which followed the worst season of Test cricket since readmission, player workloads were being bemoaned. Under Du Plessis’s leadership, South Africa turned the corner in their Test whites with a series victory over New Zealand, who were ranked higher than the Proteas at the time, and inflicted a first 5-0 whitewash of the Australians in 50-overs cricket.
He has also told people to “relax” in relation to transformation targets and that “there is enough talent, no matter what colour you are”, and that South Africa will remain “a force to be reckoned with”.
That type of honesty from their leader has allowed the team to plot a way forward and head into the coming threeTest series in Australia confident in the abilities of the players they have at their disposal, and not trying to rush De Villiers back from injury.
“We had an exceptional (ODI) series. A lot has been said about the Australian team, but I felt we played consistently good cricket, and we take a lot of confidence from that,” Du Plessis said.
Confident
“We by no means think we’ll rock up here in Australia and it’ll be easy. It never is … we’ll have to play good cricket to compete with them, but the performances we had in South Africa do bring us here a little bit more confident.”
However, Du Plessis doesn’t think De Villiers will be back in time for the third Test – a day-night affair in Adelaide.
“He’s just had an operation. We’re not expecting it. He wants to play. It’s pink-ball Test cricket, and most of us in the team are not young pups anymore. If it happens … great. If it doesn’t, we’ve got some guys who are capable of putting in good performances.
There is certainly a case of pink-ball fever permeating the Proteas squad right now.
“I haven’t faced or thrown the pink ball around so it’s all pretty new to me,” said Du Plessis..
He will have an opportunity to assess the pink ball in two floodlit warm-up matches before the Adelaide Test, which starts on November 24.