Rassie van der Dussen of South Africa and Jos Buttler of England. Image: Frikkie Kapp/BackpagePix
Proteas star says dealing with ‘noise’ comes with the job
Proteas middle order star Rassie van der Dussen says that playing for South Africa means being able to shut out the noise.
Rassie van der Dussen of South Africa and Jos Buttler of England. Image: Frikkie Kapp/BackpagePix
Proteas middle order star Rassie van der Dussen says that playing for South Africa means being able to shut out the noise.
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Shutting out the noise
Van der Dussen said that he hasn’t felt distracted by the discussion surrounding the possible return to the team of Faf du Plessis.
“Whether it’s World Cups, choking, qualifying, whatever it might be; there is always noise,” Van der Dussen told IOL.
“I would be lying to say it doesn’t have an effect. Back then it was AB; of course you feel that if he comes back, who’s going to miss out?
“But growing up in South Africa we’ve just learnt to live with it. There is no sense in trying to run away from it. It’s just part of being within the South African cricket set-up. You just have to make peace with it and move on.
“My attitude has always been that if I’m putting in the work, playing the way I can play, if I am conditioned from a physical aspect, then I’ll be in the team and it doesn’t really matter what anyone else is doing.”
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Proteas to relish underdog status
Van Der Dussen feels that the Proteas will thrive on being Cricket World Cup underdogs.
The Proteas just scraped into the tournament in the end and not too many will be backing the men in green.
“Look… none of us thought that we were ever not going to qualify. It’s a strange feeling that somehow we will scrape in and it ended up that way,” Van der Dussen said.
“We are always running. We have every reason to feel confident. We have a world-class team with every base covered. We have a very versatile squad, and even the guys missing out can fill certain roles.
“I think we will go there as underdogs, but that doesn’t change anything. We go there as a passionate and proud cricketing nation. We are going to win a World Cup at some stage. The law of averages tells you that. When that is, we don’t know, but it might as well be in November.”
