Former South African cricketer Hashim Amla is a batsman Faf du Plessis would have loved to have at his disposal on the recently concluded India tour. Amla, who said he was disappointed at how the Proteas collapsed, acknowledged that ups and downs happen to every team and expects them to bounce back stronger soon.
“We have to be very aware that (after) one bad tour like the one we have had in India, everybody starts scrambling and looking for reasons for it (team’s failure). But whenever we had lost a tour, we would take the responsibility; yes, we did not play well enough-if that was the case. But if we had a good tour we would say we played well enough and we keep improving. It is difficult to quantify what has just come up,” Amla told Hindustan Times.
“Watching the Proteas in India, they did not do too well. As an ardent supporter of the team, it was certainly disappointing but then at the same time having played the game you have to understand these things happen in international cricket. Teams do go through (periods) wherein they do not perform well.”
“I am sure it will not be long before the Proteas team are back to winning ways.”
While Amla dodged questions about possibly joining the coaching staff to help out his former team, he however does believe it is wrong to compare Virat Kohli’s side to any of the older Indian teams.
“Having played against Sachin (Tendulkar), (Rahul) Dravid, (VVS) Laxman, (Sourav) Ganguly, (Virender) Sehwag. You are not going to get a batting line-up which is going to be better than that, worldwide. India at the moment are playing really good cricket, they are established and a balanced team. They are doing well. But having played against Sachin and the like, that team was brilliant. (Anil) Kumble and Harbhajan (Singh) were fantastic bowlers. It may be for other people to decide, but I have played against some really good cricketers and (with) the change in over a decade, I do not think you can really compare each team.”
