Big decisions and South African cricket do not go hand in hand. If JP Duminy and Faf du Plessis were Australian, they would have paid the price for their respective paltry returns of 198 and 329 runs from 10 and 17 innings during the 2015/16 test season.Unflattering averages of 19.8 and 19.35 often signal the end of careers in the land of the baggy green.story_article_left1But things are done differently in South Africa and dropping big-name players is harder than asking a politician to take responsibility.Du Plessis's elevation to the test captaincy in AB de Villiers's injury- enforced absence ahead of the upcoming New Zealand series leads to the inevitable stay of execution. However, that doesn't quite guarantee a sense of permanence.A shade of ruthlessness was exhibited by the selectors when Du Plessis was dropped for his home-ground test against England at SuperSport Park in January. The same applied to Duminy when he missed the New Year's test at his beloved Newlands.Convenor of selectors Linda Zondi understands the rut senior players are in, but feels they have enough in the tank to overcome their travails.But Zondi knows there will come a time when they need to stop trading on reputations and let the runs talk."At the moment, we've lost a big player in AB and you also have to look at the team situation, and where the team is. We do have back-up players in JP Duminy and Stiaan van Zyl. They are quality players in their own right, but we also need to give a senior player like Faf as much chance to prove that he's still in our test plans. We hope he comes through in the New Zealand series because then it solves the depth headache," Zondi said.block_quotes_start The kind of team we have on paper doesn't reflect where we are on the test rankings block_quotes_end"Every single batsman has to take responsibility, which means every player is under pressure to perform. The kind of team we have on paper doesn't reflect where we are on the test rankings. The batsmen have to take responsibility for us to move up in the rankings.There would be added pressure on a newcomer to deal with the test captaincy, but Faf has delivered in the shorter formats. He's just had a rough patch in the whites."Besides flattering to deceive for the best part of his career, Duminy's inability to score big runs consistently, convert starts and struggles against quality bowling have been a recurring theme in the past year.The improving excellence of Temba Bavuma, Rilee Rossouw and a newly assured Van Zyl in the middle-order can only make life harder for Duminystory_article_right2Bavuma has proven to be adaptable and, as the youngest of the trio, fits neatly in the mould of the No6 batsman with a bright future.Zondi admitted Bavuma's and Van Zyl's current claims are too hard to ignore, but hopes Duminy will respond positively to the young challenge below him.The duo are currently with South Africa A in Australia and made decent contributions against Zimbabwe A."A player like JP Duminy has not been in form, but he's a world-class player in his own right."For us it's about keeping the players motivated and making sure the back-up players perform because the likes of Van Zyl will be used as middle-order batsman. At least the senior players are aware they need to take responsibility because if they don't, there's someone else waiting in the wings," Zondi said."If players don't perform, it boils down to one thing: they're not taking responsibility in whatever role they have been designated. Players are picked for specific reasons and if they are not performing, they are not taking responsibility. They need to take more responsibility to make sure the team goes forward."..