Assistant coach Enoch Nkwe has insisted batsman Faf du Plessis is comfortable in South Africa's T20I XI after resigning from the captaincy recently.
Du Plessis, who was succeeded by wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock as ODI captain earlier this year, recently relinquished the Test and T20I leadership as well.
Du Plessis was rested for the recent limited-over series against England, which featured three T20Is and as many ODIs, but has since returned to the squad. South Africa will play a third and final T20I against the Australians at Newlands on Wednesday – and then commence a three-ODI series. The Proteas and Australians are priced at 2.50 and 1.53, respectively, by bet365 to win the final T20I in Cape Town.
“He is blending in nicely. It's never going to be easy from being in that captaincy position, giving it up and trying to find where you fit in. We have given him a different leadership role to assist Quinton and you saw in Port Elizabeth they worked on together tactically. We need that experience. We can't throw it away,” said Nkwe.
Nkwe on Rabada
Fast bowler Kagiso Rabada was also rested for the ODIs and T20Is against England, but is in the squad to face Australia. Rabada, like batsman David Miller and others, are in contention for a berth in South Africa‘s squad for the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year.
“I don't think anyone is certain. I feel there is a lot more. Kagiso feels the same. He is working hard. He is about 60 to 70 percent to his best. Hopefully he manages to give himself the best chance to be as close as possible to his best but sometimes it does take a while to get going,” added Nkwe.
“There are places up for grabs any guys need to step up to see if they can take ownership of those positions. Even in the ODI format, not just in T20Is, we want to see if the guys are hitting form at the right time. The T20 World Cup will be big for us, so we want to get the guys going well for that.”
