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(AFP)
Having lost the series, South Africa coach Ottis Gibson felt that there were positive things throughout the tour.
“We have seen exciting new players in the one-day series. Lungi [Ngidi] made a debut, Heinrich Klaasen made his debut and he has been excellent. Junior Dala in this T20 series was also very good, and we saw a little bit of Christiaan Jonker. He was very good. Losing is not always very easy, but when you are missing so many of your seniors, and then some new people coming and putting their names forward, the results are too hard to take. You obviously look at future and the future is some of the youngsters seem… like it is going to be bright,” he said at the post-match conference.
Gibson highlighted the fact that India has got experienced players in their ranks, that helped them win. “Experience again, experience. India have got (Jasprit) Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, two very experienced players. We’ve got (Chris) Morris and Junior Dala making his debut. The experience they have of playing not just for India but also playing 3 or 4 years of IPL cricket has shown in the end. Junior held his own very well. Chris Morris has got a lot of work to do,” he said.
Talking further about Chris Morris, Gibson said that the all-rounder needs to learn how to be match-winner. “I would imagine, Morris would go back to play some domestic cricket. IPL, whenever it starts, I am not sure when it starts. But before that he has got some domestic cricket to go and get some consistency in his bowling, especially. He is a match-winner. He is short of that. We had a conversation, myself and him. I am not telling you anything that I haven’t told him. So he just needs to find what type of bowler he wants to become and put practice in that and work in to become that person. Because he is a match-winner,” he said.
The hosts had to deal with untimely injuries to key players such as Faf de Plessis, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn and Quinton de Kock, that hampered their chances in the series. But the coach feels that their return will boost the squad, for the series against Australia.
“Seniors in any team makes it stronger. Especially, the seniors we have coming back in the team, have been a massive loss without them being there. We all thought that AB’s body is better than what it was in ODIs. I hope he is somewhere near 100 per cent and he can take his place in the team. Even Dale Steyn is not far away again. So, we missed the seniors in this series. No doubt about that. So having them back and having them will give everybody a lift,” Gibson added.
Bhuvneshwar KumarChristiaan JonkerIndia vs South AfricaOttis GibsonSouth Africa vs India 2018virat kohli
First Published: February 25, 2018, 6:44 PM IST
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