Cape Town — South Africa have only ever lost one Twenty20 international against India away. Played 6, won 3, two no results, and just one defeat reads the log. Abundant reason, then, for the Proteas to be filled with confidence ahead of the series of five matches between the sides which begins in Delhi today.
Even more so considering Temba Bavuma’s men completed an ODI clean sweep over the Indians back in South Africa just a few months ago. And that Indian team contained superstars like Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah unlike the inexperienced squad the hosts have cobbled together for this series that was disrupted even further on the eve of the opener with the withdrawal of stand-in captain KL Rahul (groin) and Kuldeep Yadav (hand) through injury.
Rishabh Pant will now lead the home side with Gujarat Titans’ Indian Premier League-winning skipper Hardik Pandya as his deputy.
Even with all this in favour of the tourists, Bavuma was not taking the bait and still expects India’s young charges to provide stiff opposition, especially due to the jostling of places with the T20 World Cup on the horizon.
“We were able to get the better of the Indian team a couple of months ago, but this is a different team, fresher, younger faces in their team who have a big point to prove and who would like to stake a claim for a place in the Indian team. They won’t be short of any motivation,” Bavuma told reporters in India.
“We are not here thinking everything is going to happen the same way it happened in South Africa. We know we are going to have to play good cricket, prepare well, which I think we’ve done.”
It would be foolhardy to believe that any Indian team, particularly in the shortest format in their own conditions, will be a pushover. The hosts still possess some of the finest IPL talent such as Chennai Super Kings batter Ruturaj Gaikwad, Lucknow Super Giants leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi and Sunrisers Hyderabad pace sensation Umran Malik.
Furthermore, the Titans certainly showed in winning the IPL this past season that it's not always the brand names that manage to achieve success, but rather role-definition and the ability to get players into the right mindspace to perform at their optimum levels.
In this regard, the Proteas are a more settled T20I unit. They may not have played together since falling just short of qualifying for the T20 World Cup semi-finals in the United Arab Emirates last November, but they have the experience of winning 13 of their last 16 T20Is over the past 12 months.
This can only be achieved when everyone knows what they need to do. And more importantly when they need to do it.
This series, and the five remaining matches against England (3) and Ireland (2), is, though, fundamental for the Proteas to solidify their top-order combination ahead of another crack at the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year.
There has been a tendency to squeeze three openers - and sometimes a fourth and fifth - into the batting line-up, but it was refreshing to hear Bavuma’s confirmation that he will revert to taking on the new ball with Quinton de Kock at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium after shifting down the order after two early failures at the T20 World Cup.
“Within our batting line-up that is something where we would like to create more solidity on. Quinton and myself at the top, and kind of extending that through to the World Cup,” Bavuma said.
“I think the middle-order is quite settled. We have a young guy like Tristan Stubbs, and I’m sure he’ll get an opportunity somewhere down the line to see what value he could be in the line-up. In the games leading up to the World Cup will obviously give those guys opportunities to create that consistency in the batting line-up. I think it's an exciting series lined up for both teams.”
LIKELY TEAMS FOR DELHI
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (capt), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Dwaine Pretorius, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi.
India: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), Hardik Pandya, Deepak Hooda/Dinesh Karthik, Harshal Patel, Bhuveshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi/Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal.