Mumbai: Ahead of the upcoming T20I series against India starting from June 9, South African skipper Temba Bavuma said that any type of competitive cricket before the T20 World Cup will be a benefit for his team.
“The conditions in India don’t accurately simulate conditions in Australia. In saying that, there’s still a lot of benefit from playing. Any type of competitive cricket will be good for us, “Bavuma said during a virtual media interaction.
“We’ll be using these games really to familiarise ourselves again with how we go about playing cricket. Getting that right language that we speak amongst ourselves, really getting guys understanding what their roles are within the team,” he added.
Further, Bavuma talked about new faces in the team and said “We’ve got a couple of new faces within the T20 space. Opportunities will be given to those guys to see what role they can play and what value they can add to the team.”
The South African white-ball skipper feels the Indian team in recent times has had players who go hard and play aggressive cricket.
“The attitude, the mindset of the Indian team, in the last couple of years, has changed. It’s guys who play cricket hard, who play very competitively. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are not there but the Indian fighting spirit will still be there.
“We don’t expect them to take it easy on us. We don’t expect it to be easy on us. We still expect it to be tough, and we’ll be approaching it in that manner.”
Asked about areas they would like to improve, Bavuma said. “That’s (batting) a thing we’d like to solidify. More specifically, at the top.”
“If I look at our bowling there is a bit more of solidity and clarity. With these games we’ll be trying to find those combinations, or particularly for who partners up with Quinton upfront.”
“One, two or number three position are probably where we’d like to get a lot more clarity. But I think everything else will kind of will continue as is. Our middle order is our middle order, we’ve got a nice set of all rounders is more particularly at the top.
“In terms of the series, we are looking to win but also achieve all the other objectives as well.”
Reportedly, India’s skipper Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Jasprit Bumrah rested for the series, the hosts are being led by KL Rahul with some new faces in the team including pacers Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh.
