Faf du Plessis says Proteas still at an ‘infant stage’ and need to ‘mature’

Proteas captain Faf du Plessis said on Tuesday that although the mood in the national squad has been lifted quite considerably, they still have a way to go before they become a well-oiled unit to approach the levels of excellence produced by the team that featured Graeme Smith, Mark Boucher, and Jacques Kallis.

Thursday’s first Test against England in Centurion will be the first under the management of the triumvirate of former greats that took South Africa to number one in the Test rankings and, as excited as the team are to be working under them, Du Plessis said patience would still be required.

“It’s been a breath of fresh air, we’ve seen a lot of positives and there’s a real energy in the squad. But we know we will be measured by what happens on the field and, as a Test team, we are still at an infant stage, we need to mature. Hopefully, we will play a bit better in every series because the talent is there. I’m excited about what will happen.

“So all the off-field stuff is good now and we definitely need to start well. We’ve trained well and now we have to make sure we put our peg in the ground and get the belief back through performance. It’s the beginning stage for the batsmen as a group, so hopefully someone will get a hundred and that will be a boost for the batting unit. For us to do well, we must get runs on the board,” Du Plessis said at SuperSport Park on Tuesday.

The captain confirmed that South Africa were still mulling the composition of their attack, with a batting unit of Elgar, Markram, Hamza, Du Plessis, Van der Dussen and De Kock being settled upon. It seems the Proteas will want to lambast the English with four pacemen, but also use the slow poison of left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj.

“We’re looking to play the all-rounder at seven. In the old days, we used to have three seamers and a spinner, but now we need another bowler and the all-rounder can give us 10 overs like Ben Stokes does for England. His focus will be on scoring runs, it will most probably be Dwaine Pretorius and he’s got the skills to be a fourth seamer as well.

“In terms of spin, I think Keshav has a role to play in this series. He was disappointing in India, but he’s such a good spinner that I doubt he’ll be down for long. If it’s hot and it’s a good batting pitch, then you need the spin to control matters. Here at Centurion, the pitch does normally get a bit up-and-down with the heat and some cracks, towards the end of the game it can misbehave,” said Du Plessis.

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