India vs South Africa 2019: Faf du Plessis feels it is tough to replace Dale Steyn, AB de Villiers, Morne Morkel and Hashim Amla overnight 

South Africa’s captain Faf du Plessis has explained that the inexperience of the current crop of players cost them the Gandhi-Mandela series. He went on to acknowledge the fact that it is not possible to replace veterans such as Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel overnight.

During the post-match interview of the 2nd Test match, the Proteas captain said,

“I think, it’s purely a case of inexperience. I said before this Test series, your best Test teams are the teams with the most experience. When it comes to this Indian team, there’s a lot of experience in that dressing room, there’s a lot of Test matches behind their names.”

Speaking about the inexperienced players in the team, du Plessis further added,

“We are at this stage where we have lost almost all of our experience. Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, all of them were seasoned campaigners. You don’t replace those guys overnight. And now it’s a new group of guys, who have played 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 15 Test matches. That will take time. If you take the best players out of any team, they would find the same challenges,.”

He felt that it is important for the likes of Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock to support him in guiding the young talent.

The inexperience of the South African Team

Keshav Maharaj and many others are on their first tour to India

Perhaps the South African skipper was right when he stated the inexperience of the players cost them the series. A majority of the top order batsmen in the team, namely Theunis de Bruyn, Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram are playing their first Test series in Indian conditions.

Also, their front-line spinners Keshav Maharaj and Senuran Muthusamy are paying their maiden visit to India. With half of the squad playing on the spin-friendly pitches of India for the first time, Faf du Plessis’ men tried their best but could not save the series.

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