Imran Tahir instrumental for South Africa's success, feels Faf du Plessis

Tahir could be the X-factor for South Africa

After Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, now South African T20 captain Faf du Plessis too has come out in rich support of his teammate Imran Tahir, reports IBNLive. He said Tahir could win matches for South Africa as spin will play a big part in the upcoming India-South Africa series.

Du Plessis talked about Tahir's importance in the sub-continent and said that he has changed the way South Africa play cricket.

"The South African team is travelling to India with the know-how that we also have a spinner that can win us games. Tahir has proved around the world that he changes games, especially in white-ball format. He himself has possibly changed the way South Africa play cricket. He gives us wickets in middle overs, where we previously always relied on pace. Certainly our success as a team has been heavily on his shoulders," Du Plessis said.

Talking about another young spinner Eddie Leie, in the squad, Du Plessis said the newcomer could learn a lot from Tahir throughout the series. The 31-year old also seemed content with his spin bowling options, comprising of Tahir, JP Duminy and Leie.

"He(Tahir) is number two in the world in ODIs. It's nice to know we have also got a weapon in spinning department. JP (Duminy) also has had success in T20 cricket, he gets wickets all the time. Then we have young spinner in Eddie Leie, almost tapping into Imran's knowledge, so confident our spinning options", he said.

In the latest ICC T20 bowlers list, Tahir is placed 13th, while India’s star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is comfortable sitting on the 4th position. Both players will be eager to perform well for their teams and further improve their ratings.

The captain along with a few of his teammates AB de Villiers, Tahir, Albie Morkel and Duminy, will be looking to exploit the Indian conditions, having already featured in the IPL for different franchises, in different venues.

"IPL has changed the way cricket is played. There is aggression, and I have taken a lot from IPL, batting against the best spinners in the world,” the skipper said.

The T20 captain was, however, surprised about the dew factor in the HPCA stadium in Dharamsala and predicted that the dew could play a big role in the evening fixture tomorrow.

"It came as a big surprise when we came for practice last night. The dew was there at half past six. But it will be pretty much same for both the teams. Dew is never a nice thing for a bowling team or fielding team because the ball gets slippery. The wet ball takes away a little bit of challenge from the spinners because it does not spin much”, he concluded.