Players like AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn cannot be replaced overnight: Faf du Plessis

South Africa had come to India in order to start a new stage of their Test cricket after the retirement of the likes of Hashim Amla and Dale Steyn from the format. The last time Proteas had come to India was in 2015 and were utterly humiliated 3-0 in a four-Test series, however with new blood and a determined captain, the unit though that they could do well this time around.

However, things unraveled quickly as the top order of the team capitulated in the Pune Test which South Africa lost by an innings and 137 runs. They had shown fight in the first Test where Quinton de Kock and Dean Elgar made centuries and Faf du Plessis has been making half-centuries. Unfortunately, the batsmen fell apart on Pune pitch, where India had piled on 601/5d with Mayank Agarwal making 108 and Virat Kohli slamming career-best 254*.

Du Plessis says that he, De Kock and Elgar need to take the onus of scoring runs

In the post-match press conference, Faf du Plessis rued the lack of experience in the batting line-up and said that the retirement of some big-name players had been the reason for their poor performance in the Test series, which they trail by 2-0.

“I think, it’s purely a case of inexperience. I said before this Test series, your best Test teams are the teams with the most experience. When it comes to this Indian team, there’s a lot of experience in that dressing room, there’s a lot of Test matches behind their names,” Du Plessis was quoted as saying by mid-day.com.

He named Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Hashim Amla, and AB de Villiers and said that these players cannot be replaced overnight and it was important for the senior guys in the team to take the initiative so that the players who have played 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 15 Test matches can overcome challenges thrown at them by opposition.

“We are at this stage where we have lost almost all of our experience. Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, all of them were seasoned campaigners. You don’t replace those guys overnight. For us, it is important as a senior player group to make sure that we put in performances ourselves. Myself, Deano, Quinny (De Kock), we can’t expect other guys to make runs. We need to make sure we make the runs first and then the other guys to chip in with us. In a time like this, it is important that your big guys really, really take control and make sure that they put in the bulk of the work,” Faf du Plessis was quoted as saying by mid-day.com.

The third Test between India and South Africa will be played from October 19 in Ranchi.

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