Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis has picked four big-name bowlers to watch out for in the upcoming World Cup 2023 in India. Surprisingly, the South African didn’t pick spearhead India fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, nor did he pick Pakistan’s pace sensation Shaheen Afridi.
The World Cup 2023 extravaganza will kick off on October 5 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The final is also slated for the same venue, on November 19.
Shaheen and Bumrah are the first names on the team sheets of their respective teams. However, for Faf du Plessis, he went with other pacers: Trent Boult, Kagiso Rabada and Mohammed Siraj; and he also picked India’s Kuldeep Yadav in his list of bowlers who could make the biggest impact in the 10-team tournament.
Faf du Plessis said that the success of any type of bowler will heavily depend on the pitches they play on. He praised Siraj for the kind of seam movement he gets; Siraj is the new number 1 ranked ICC ODI bowler.
Boult remains arguably the best new-ball bowler in the world, while Rabada is at his peak age.
“I think it depends on the wickets. You know, if the wicket has got something in it, someone like Siraj who just nibbles the ball a little bit both ways, and he’s trying the off stump the whole time. Boult, those kinds of guys are going to be extremely successful. Rabada also is there,” Faf du Plessis said on Star Sports.
Kuldeep is quite tricky to face: Faf du Plessis
The RCB captain also heaped praise on wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who is, among the bowlers of the 10 teams at the World Cup, the leading ODI wicket-taker in 2023 with 31 wickets in 15 bowling innings.
“If there is a little bit of spin, you know, someone like Kuldeep has bowled really well in the last six months. When he gets his tail up and he gets one wicket, you know, the next batter’s coming in, he’s quite tricky to face his first few balls because he spins the ball both ways,” du Plessis added.
