Captain Faf du Plessis is determined to embrace a hefty challenge as South Africa attempt to recover from two opening defeats – and ongoing injury concerns – at the 2019 World Cup in the United Kingdom.

The Proteas lost to England and Bangladesh at The Oval in London last week. They will be without hamstrung fast bowler Lungi Ngidi for Wednesday’s encounter with India at the Rose Bowl in Southampton – and injured pace ace Dale Steyn for the rest of the tournament.

‘I have to front up to it. It’s probably not our strongest team that we have ever had coming here, and is it the right or the wrong time. That’s not my choice,’ said Du Plessis.

‘My position that I’m in is, I’m the captain of the team right now and players are looking for someone to lead them. So all I can do is try my absolute best to try and do that. Once again, that doesn’t mean results. I wish it did.

‘For me, I’m trying to make sure I stay positive for the team, I stay strong, encourage other guys in the team, other leaders in the group to also stay strong.

‘At no stage in the game can we as a senior player group look like we are down and out. It is not an option for us. We are a very, very proud cricketing nation. So, no matter how bad it gets, how good it gets, I will keep driving that.’

The Proteas, meanwhile, have contingency plans in place for the absence of Ngidi and Steyn. All-rounders Chris Morris and Dwaine Pretorius are central to this, according to Du Plessis.

‘As you can see right now, there is a plan in place for the worst-case scenario, which is losing our bowling attack. Now you have to go back to your all-rounders which we felt have been our strategy in the past,’ he added.

‘The last time we came here, the previous Champions’ Trophy with a lot of all-rounders, Wayne Parnell, Morris, guys like that. So we batted seven, eight, nine. So we are back to that now, back to that option. We have a lot of all-rounders and not a lot of specialists. So I think we have planned for it.

‘We didn’t plan to lose Lungi, but that’s obviously happened now, so we still have got enough options.’

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