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Faf Du Plessis urges South Africa to shed underachievers tag at World Cup 2019
South Africa have reached the last four of World Cup four times but have never managed to seal a place in the final.
South Africa skipper Faf Du Plessis believes that the Proteas can finally end their major trophy drought by playing ‘courageous’ brand of cricket at the ICC World Cup 2019.
South Africa have reached the last four of World Cup four times but have never managed to seal a place in the final. Du Plessis feels that if the players go to the showpiece event without any mental ‘baggage’, then they can do wonders at the next year’s tournament.
“For me, you can see in the current group there is some young, courageous players in there,” Du Plessis was quoted as saying by ICC. “I believe that is the way we’ll win the World Cup; to really go there without all the baggage and go ‘these are the most talented and courageous cricketers’ and play a style of cricket that doesn’t limit us from being so mentally challenged by going to a World Cup every time.
“Because, let’s be honest, that’s probably the only hurdle we haven’t overcome is the mental aspect of it. We’ve always been skilfully right up there, just lacking in crucial aspects of the game. That’s why my message is to free players up mentally, try get them to a space where they’re not fearing failing.”
Citing example of Pakistan, Du Plessis said that fast bowlers will play a major role in order for a team to win the World Cup in the seam friendly conditions of England.
“I think if you look at Pakistan who won the Champions Trophy, your bowling unit is going to play a massive role,” he added.
“We went there [Champions Trophy] with probably the best batting line-up in the world - I think we had four of the top ten batters, so we were feeling very confident in the batting unit we had. But the ability to get wickets in those conditions seemed to be the ten percenter, so that’s why we’re looking at guys who can get you wickets at any stage of a game.
“From a batting point of view, try and have as long a batting line-up as you can. That’s probably why England will call themselves favourites, because they have a very long batting line-up. It’s a little different with our team, we don’t have those guys who are all-rounders.”
