Virat Kohli will be “super motivated” to put a struggling phase behind him and the premier India batter is capable of returning to his run-making ways, said former South African captain Faf du Plessis in Cape Town on Wednesday. Kohli had a torrid time in Australia during the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy, amassing a mere 190 runs at an average of 23.75 across five Tests despite starting off with an unbeaten hundred in the first Test at Perth.
Du Plessis backed Kohli, his one-time teammate at Royal Challengers Bangalore, to come back stronger from the struggles, and said retirement is a “very personal” choice.
“That is very, very personal. No one can speak to you about when that time is (up) as a player, you’ll know,” du Plessis told PTI on the sidelines of the SA20 Season 3’s Captain’s Day.
“I know someone like him is super super motivated, he’s gone through it all before, so he knows exactly what to do,” said Du Plessis.
The 40-year-old then went back to the day when he felt his time was up as a Test cricketer.
“It is different for every player. Every player needs to answer that question. I remember when that time was for me,” he said.
“I just knew that certainly from the Test cricket perspective for me. I didn’t have that same hunger and drive anymore and I felt that that stage certainly for me was a good time to let new guys come in and also step into the T20 world.
“I wanted to do that at the stage where I still felt like I was on top of my game,” he added.
Du Plessis was not pleased with ICC reportedly exploring the possibility of a two-tier Test system.
“No, I think we need the game to be healthy,” Du Plessis said.
“We saw over the last few years the value that was put on Test cricket by Australia, England and India making sure that there were 4-5 Test series.
“When you look at the other teams, there are two Test matches here and there and playing six Test matches a season. I do not think that is healthy for the game,” he offered.
“As long as we can look at Test cricket as (being) important, you just look at all the Test matches that took place over the last few weeks, some incredible matches have been played,” Du Plessis noted.
“SA deserve to raise WTC trophy”
South Africa spinner Keshav Maharaj rated the consistency of his side in Test cricket “phenomenal” and said they deserve to “raise a prestigious title.” The Proteas will face Australia in the final of the World Test Championship in June at the Lord’s.
South Africa advanced to the title clash of the 2023-25 cycle with a 2-0 win over Pakistan at home, while India’s string of losses against New Zealand at home and against Australia ended their hopes of a third consecutive WTC final appearance.
“If you look at our Test unit, not many people would have afforded us the opportunity of making the final, but we’ve been phenomenal from a consistency point of view, from a cricket perspective,” Maharaj told PTI.
“The togetherness on the field and the camaraderie and spirit (that) you see within the dressing room propelled us to get there.
“Hopefully, this is our year and we go one better than we’ve done previously and raise a very prestigious title in the Test format,” he said.
Maharaj, however, conceded that defending champions Australia are a formidable opponent.
“It’s the hardest format of the game. It’s most challenging physically, mentally and emotionally. As a unit, the (kind of) cricket (that) we have played, we deserve to go and raise a trophy.
“But we are against formidable opponents, hopefully, we will come up on the right side of things,” he said.
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