Faf du Plessis urges South Africa young bowlers to learn from Shami

Faf du Plessis

Pune: Skipper Faf du Plessis feels that younger South African fast bowlers can learn a lot from Indian pacer Mohammed Shami as to how one can be so devastating in home conditions. Shami bowled a lethal spell on the fifth day in Visakhapatnam that went a long way in India winning the first Test by 203 runs. "I spoke to one of our young bowlers too and said to him that it's a good learning opportunity for you to sit and watch what someone does when they're on top of their game in home conditions," Du Plessis said during his pre-match media conference.

"Just learn from [the use of] his angles of the crease and how does he reverse the ball. So yeah there's definitely something to learn from." What Du Plessis found fascinating was the intensity with which Shami bowled on the fifth day. "There's a huge intensity about his bowling. You are going to bowl short spells in the heat but when you bowl you have to ensure that you bowl with a lot of intensity and maximise it," the Proteas skipper said.

There is in fact a lot to learn from the lengths he bowled, reckons Du Plessis. "He's a guy that hits the stumps a lot. That's something from a bowling point of view, we have to make sure, we are better at. "In the first innings especially, we bowled wide and therefore they scored frequently square of the wicket. So there are a lot of lessons to learn," he opined.

While he didn't go into the specifics, Du Plessis indicated that there could be a change in the playing XI, going into the next Test match.

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