Cricket South Africa on Monday (October 14) pleaded for patience from fans after national team's embarrassing back to back defeats in the Test series in India. The Proteas, currently going through a painstaking rebuilding phase following the retirements of some of their greats, were hammered in Visakhapatnam and Pune to go 2-0 down in the three-match series. 

"It was always going to be a difficult challenge taking on the top team in the world -- certainly under their own conditions -- at a time when we have introduced a new team structure," Cricket South Africa chief executive Thabang Moroe was quoted as saying by AFP. 

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South Africa also appointed Enoch Nkwe, country's former first-class player and successful franchise level coach, as the team's new director on an interim basis for this tour. 

"In the past two years we have had to bid farewell to some of the great names of international cricket such as AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn who between them played nearly 450 Test matches for the Proteas," Moroe added. 

"You don’t replace that kind of experience overnight and we need to give a new generation time to settle."

However, Moroe also expressed confidence of better performances in the upcoming home summer that begins with the Test series against England. And further tried to give some perspective of this series defeat to people by stressing it has come versus the No.1 ranked Test side in its own den. 

"These are exciting times for South African cricket with new names and faces coming to the fore."

"Our talent pipeline has produced the likes of Aiden Markram, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Zubayr Hamza over the last few years and our development systems are clearly in good shape," he added. 

(Inputs from AFP)