South Africa are scheduled to play Zimbabwe in a one-off day-night Test against Zimbabwe, starting at St George’s Park on Tuesday. However, Proteas Captain Faf du Plessis is a doubtful starter to the game as he has not fully yet recovered from a back injury sustained during a one-day international against Bangladesh in October. Faf has said that he has been feeling a slight amount of discomfort still and will only play the game if he is fully fit, he also added that his progress was slowed down by a virus he caught a week ago.
“The professionals say that if there is still a pain in the disc it’s a little bit dangerous so that’s why we’re seeing how it works today, Last week I would have said my chances were 80-20, right now it is about 60-40.” the 33-year-old said. He also gave out a hint that he was setting sights on being fully fit for the first test against India at Capetown starting on January 5th. “I’d rather feel good and play no cricket rather than play and not feel good,” he said.
Du Plessis went on to admit that a major selection dilemma would be averted if he chooses not to play.Yet Another South African going through injury crisis is fast bowler Dale Steyn and Du Plessis added that Steyn won’t be rushed to action.
“It gives someone else an opportunity to play, which was quite a headache in the first place. “With Dale, in terms of the amount of overs he’s bowled leading up to the first Test I think it’s important to assess how ready he is to bowl at full intensity, We want him to be 100 percent. If he we feel he isn’t quite there, there’s still time to get him ready between now and the first Test against India,” said Du Plessis.
Du Plessis emphasized on the nations first ever day-night test and the first one to be played over 4 days by saying that it tends to put a premium on tactics and also added that the use of pink balls under lights would give the opposition team Zimbabwe reason for hope.
“There’s more room for thinking out of the box and seeing if you can outsmart the opposition.” “The great thing for Zimbabwe is that they have some senior players back. With the pink ball, they will probably see themselves offering more of a challenge because the pink ball does a little bit more. “The game is still played 70 percent in the day. The ball does something when it’s new but then it goes a bit softer, then at night, it does a bit more. But there will still be good batting conditions for a lot of the time.” he concluded.
