South Africa willing to change pace policy against Australia: Ottis Gibson

Ottis Gibson

South Africa head coach Ottis Gibson has said that his side is eager to change their pace policy of playing four pacemen in the upcoming four-match Test series against Australia, beginning Thursday at Kingsmead in Durban. Earlier, Gibson, during the successful Test series against India, emphasised the idea of playing four pacers more often in the longest format of the game.

Though South Africa had managed to beat India 2-1 in the three-match Test series, there were some issues regarding the batting order as their wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock failed to perform well lower down the batting line-up. And the South African team's head coach admitted that his team would require a distinct strategy heading into the upcoming Test series against Australia.

"It is different opposition, therefore, the make-up of the team is slightly different. We have to get to Durban and see what we get (in terms of the pitch)," Sport24 quoted Gibson as saying. Skipper Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel are some of the experienced South African cricketers who would be returning to the side for the series against the Steve Smith-led team.

Looking forward to working with the senior players again after trying some new faces in the ODI and T20I series against India, Gibson said, "The seniors in any team makes it stronger, especially our guys. Our captain has been a massive loss. We are hoping AB's body is better than it was in the one-dayers, we hope that he is somewhere near 100 per cent." After winning the Test series, South Africa failed to replicate the same in ODI and T20I series against India, slumping to 1-5 and 1-2 defeat, respectively.

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