ICC Cricket World Cup is all set to take place from May 30 in England. All the teams are currently working on their strengths and weaknesses. However, South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said that South Africa wouldn’t be looking to do any ‘Superman’ things in the mega event and will do the ‘normal’ things consistently. They didn’t have a great record in the knockout matches of World Cup for the last couple of years because they often crumbled under pressure.

“In previous World Cups, we wanted to do Superman things,” du Plessis said on Saturday (May 18) prior to the team’s departure to England.

“We thought we had to be more special, we had to do something more than we usually do, and we did not do what was good enough. We haven’t always got that right in the past, to play our best cricket at the World Cup, because we put so much pressure on ourselves. We want to just focus on enjoying our cricket,” he added.

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“We believed you had to be really special to win the World Cup, that you had to do something more than you usually do, which is not true. Whatever we’ve been doing consistently, the way we’ve played while beating teams that will work. We have to do the basics as well as possible, teams don’t win the World Cup by someone scoring a century off 50 balls or taking 7 for 20,” he further added.

However, he said to each player to find their strengths and weaknesses.

“I’ve been there and I know the pressures, I understand how to deal with them. There’s a reason why we want the guys to play freely – because we don’t want them to have a fear of failure, which is what the World Cup is for some of them. Our success in England over the next couple of months depends on how well we release that aspect of our play – we need that for the team to be at our best. Each player needs to find out his own strengths,” he explained.

“The players relate better to fellow players and I’m on the same level as the coach when it comes to the importance of the mental side. I’m a big believer in positive visualisation, how to remain calm, and I feel it has had value for my own game. So I can relate that to the players, how important it is to be present in the moment; for instance when there’s been a dropped catch, there’s nothing you can do about it and it’s about how you change your mindset to make sure you are still strong mentally,” he further expressed.

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Though all the players are not in a good form, Du Plessis said Hashim Amla’s experience will be important in the big tournament.

“As an experienced player, he is important in our squad and that was one of the key reasons he was picked,” du Plessis said. “You cannot substitute experience. When I speak about the experience, I speak about experience having played in tournaments like the World Cup before. He understands what it means to play in a big tournament.”

“Whether that means runs or not, no one can give us that guarantee. But it’s just the calm composure Hashim has. Even if he doesn’t play a game, just the knowledge and experience that he can share with someone like an Aiden Markram is something you can only get from a guy like Hashim. He can talk him through those first 10 overs, he has a lot of experience playing county cricket, so his experience is vital to the group,” he said.

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“In terms of team selection, that’s a call we will make when we get to that first game. We have two warm-up games. Generally, we want to pick on form. If we believe Hash is the guy with the best form for the first game then he will be picked. But if we feel there are other guys that are more in form… form does play a huge role in a long competition like this – so hopefully Hash can go into those warm-ups, and bang, bang two centuries in a row and then we can smile from there,” South Africa captain told.

However, South Africa will begin their World Cup campaign against England at The Oval on May 30.