SL vs SA 2018: Faf Du Plessis feels excited about the brand of cricket South Africa is playing

Faf is also impressed with the way Quinton De Kock led the side in the fourth ODI.

Faf du Plessis (Getty)

South African Captain Faf du Plessis has come out and stated that he is mighty impressed with the performance of his side, despite the stutter in the last game, during the ongoing ODI series in Sri Lanka. Faf, who has gone back home with an injury and is seeing Quinton De Kock lead the side for the last two ODI games, went onto say that less than a year ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup in England, he is excited about the brand of limited overs cricket that his side is playing. 

A happy Du Plessis was quoted saying, "There are a few young faces playing fearless cricket. To beat Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka three times in a row is no mean feat, We are starting to answer quite a few of those questions.[There's] a lot of emphasis on the way we play and how we want to play. The vision myself and the coach [Ottis Gibson] have is all about how we are going to win the World Cup. I think you can see the guys are playing an exciting brand of cricket."

"There are still a few things that need to happen over the course of the next six months to a year, I see that as a great opportunity, especially for the younger guys," Faf dwelled on the important issue after AB de Villers' retirement and added, "The experienced players don't need more experience. It is about getting the younger guys as much experience as possible. Even if that means if there are one or two series where we rest the more senior players, just to get the younger players more experience."

He then showered praise on South Africa's pace bowling unit which has been oustanding on flat Sri Lankan surfaces. 

"I am really excited about our opening bowling combination KG [Kagiso Rabada] and Lungi [Ngidi]. That's very nice for us. They strike and they take wickets, There are some nice young batters coming through, which is putting pressure on the more experienced batters. Obviously, when AB [de Villiers] retired, that forced us to change a few things, which is why I moved to No 4 - just playing around with one or two things to see what is our best combination."


In du Plessis's absence, it's Quinton de Kock who's in charge of the ODI team and he is happy with the way De Kock has led the team. 

He said, "We felt that when Graeme [Smith] left, there were no real opportunities for young leaders in the team to get one or two occasions where they could captain without being the full-time captain, You can use that opportunity to learn. There are two or three young guys in the team who have some leadership capabilities" 

"With guys like Quinton, it's more about developing their personalities and character. Someone like Quinton will grow a lot just by getting extra responsibility. It doesn't mean that he will be captain in the future or he won't - we just see an opportunity for him to grow as a player. When I do eventually come back, hopefully, he will be better off for it with a better understanding of what it's like to be a senior player in the team."

(Inputs from Cricbuzz)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 11 Aug, 2018

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