Australia will have scars the way we beat them: Faf du Plessis

South African skipper Faf du Plessis is very confident of putting up a good show in Australia. South Africa are scheduled to play 3 Test down under in November. The Australians recently received some heavy beating from South Africa in the ODI series. It was the first instance when Australia were whitewashed 5-0 in a bilateral series. Du Plessis was the man in charge of the Proteas during the series, the absence of AB de Villiers will give him an opportunity to captain the side in the Tests too.

He was all smiles when he spoke to the reporters ahead of the Test series. The middle-order batsman said that the Aussies will have some scars mentally. He believes that a whitewash is bound to have a psychological impact on the hosts next month. Adding to it, he mentioned that the change in formats is a different thing but the scars would be there to stay.

“Beating Australia the way we did – really convincingly, not giving them a sniff – will leave a bit of a scar on them mentally. I appreciate it’s Test cricket, a different format,” quoted the South African captain. He acknowledged the fact that the Australians had a depleted side in the ODIs. They lost their front line bowlers like Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood due to injuries. The new bowling attack couldn’t pose any difficulty to the Proteas batsmen.

Faf believes that the inclusion of senior players in the Test team will be vital. And he is sure of making the most of the situation by playing well up front in the first match itself. “They will have a different team, probably a more mature team (than their ODI squad). So it’s important to start well in that first test and remind them that we are in the same space as the one-day team,” cites Faf du Plessis.

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Interestingly, former Australian bowler Ryan Harris had recently said that the new bowlers will not be scarred. “I wouldn’t say they’re scarred,” Harris had quoted a week ago.

Lastly, du Plessis said that he is aware of the fact that they need to pull up their socks in order to counter Starc. Knowing the fact that Starc can clock speeds of 150, he believes the team will be ready for the challenge.

“Starc is a huge bowler for them. We’ll need to make sure we get good prep in with left-arm quicks. He’s obviously someone who can crank it up and get it close to 150km/h and then obviously he’s very good with reverse swing,” he concluded,