Faf du Plessis unlikely to feature in the Lord's Test against England

The Proteas are in bad shape. The second quarter of 2017 has been a domino effect for them in terms of the losses they have suffered in England. Beaten and battered at the hands of the English in the ODI’s in May and in the recently concluded T20’s this month, nothing is going their way at the moment. South Africa is still licking the wounds of the Champions Trophy and with the Test series against England round the corner, they have to regroup their ragged battalion.

Proud father

But the news in the South African camp is dreary at the moment. Faf du Plessis who became a proud father on Thursday, this week, will be unavailable for the first Test at Lord’s starting next Thursday as he will be spending time with his wife Imari at home who according to Faf had a ‘difficult birth’. The star batsman has flown to South Africa and his return to the UK is uncertain in the next week.

Faf’s absence isn’t the only concern for the Proteas. They will miss the services of their skipper AB de Villiers. AB who is considering retirement from Tests to concentrate on the shorter format of the game in a bid to elongate his career till the 2019 World Cup, ruled himself out of the Test series back in January. Dean Elgar will hold the reins in place of Faf in the first Test.

Just yesterday former South African cricketer Barry Richards said that it is time de Villiers gives up ODI captaincy as well and Faf who has been leading the team in the white jersey should be escalated as skipper across formats.

“I think AB is up to here with cricket, I think he’d like to go the independent contractor route,” explained Richards. “He’s got a young family, he’s away a lot. If he wants to continue playing for South Africa he should give away the captaincy and concentrate on his batting,” he said.

“He’s a wonderful player but in the last few months I don’t think we’ve seen the best of him,” Richards added.