Proteas now sniffing a whitewash over India, says Faf

While Faf du Plessis would like to increase the number of players who get a chance at Test level, the Proteas captain does not want to just make changes for the sake of it in the third Test, preferring to keep the pressure on India when the final game of the series South Africa have already won starts at the Wanderers on Wednesday.

South Africa have never registered a 3-0 series win over India, their best results being 2-0 triumphs home and away in 1996/97 and 1999/2000.

“It’s a good thing to grow the group that we can pick from so that if someone does get injured, we don’t feel like it leaves a hole. But I don’t think we’ll make changes for the third Test just for the sake of giving opportunities. We want to keep our foot on the gas and apply as much pressure as possible.

“It doesn’t happen a lot that you get the chance to beat a team 3-0 and I would favour dominating India and being ruthless. We can use the ODIs and T20s to try and rotate players. We have an amazing opportunity as a team to win 3-0, and that makes us even more hungry to go where no team has gone before,” Du Plessis said after the victory at Centurion that gave the Proteas an unassailable 2-0 series lead.

While much of the unhappiness caused by the extreme conditions the Proteas endured in India in 2015 has thawed, there was certainly a hint of revenge in Du Plessis’ comments about the sort of pitches they wanted for the series in South Africa.

“We don’t want anything ridiculous, just pace and bounce, and our win-rate away is the best in the world, even in India. But the last time we were there, the conditions touched on extreme, such that even their batting line-up struggled, only one batsman could score a hundred and a couple of the Tests only lasted three days.

“It’s always a battle between bat and ball here, not just one dominating, and you see all five factors [pace, bounce, swing, seam and spin] come into play here. We’ve learnt a lot of lessons and we expect to put up a better fight next time we are over there.

“It was really tough in India in 2015, in terms of the conditions and the mental toll, and we had extra motivation to put that right. You could see that especially through this Test, conditions suited them more but we fought very hard every hour,” Du Plessis said.

Reams of paper have been used to write about the importance of determination in sport and Du Plessis certainly has no complaints about the effort his team put in at Centurion.

“Conditions were not what we like, but the guys responded with huge character, they showed a lot of heart and character. We had to push for longer, it took a lot of grinding and hard work and that’s what makes the win so special. I take a lot of pleasure from a win like this,” the skipper said.

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