WHAT FAF SAID YESTERDAY ...

On the rivalry between yourself and Virat Kohli as captains? I see South Africa against India. I don’t see a rivalry between us. We don’t look at Virat. He doesn’t get more time than any of the other batters. On the World’s No 1 & No 2 facing each other It’s good that we can have some importance to this series. Big series are why you play. We don’t have an Ashes, so it’s good to see that India v SA can start becoming a really big series. There are some really high-class players that are going to bash it out over the next four weeks so that’s exciting. Is this summer series against India and Australia the last hurrah for this group of players before the next generation takes over? I don’t know when the next Test series against India is, but it’s probably the last time all of us play against India and there’s no better way than playing a series in South Africa. We were disappointed the last time we went there and we’ve got a score to settle, so we are excited for this series. On the past few weeks being tough personally I sent the Ferrari into the panelbeaters. Just to get fixed. It was frustrating at times because everything happened slower than I thought it would. It is 11 weeks now and I just feel now like I’m really ready to play. On what is more important from the pitch - bounce or lateral movement? In a perfect world it will be a quick wicket that nips around a bit. We also want to try and eliminate spin as much as possible. We feel with our seam resources, on a wicket that has some pace and bounce, we can exploit some of those areas in their batting line. On the composition of the team is there a possibility of having four seamers with Dale (Steyn) and the spinner? This selection is probably one of the hardest that we are going to have to make. There are just so many combinations you can look at. It’s a nice headache to have. It’s a possibility, especially up on the Highveld (to play four seamers), but we’re still talking about what could be our strongest XI. I would like to give you a bit of insight into it but not quite yet. On AB de Villiers’ mental state What’s important with AB is that he is fresh and hungry to score big runs. He has had a good break. He feels mentally strong and he wants to put in big performances, so I think that’s half the battle already. When you have got a high-quality player like himself, if you get the mental side of things right, he can be a good asset.