Proteas captain Temba Bavuma says he’s match and raring to go as South Africa put together to launch their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup marketing campaign in opposition to Zimbabwe on the Bellerive Oval in Hobart on Monday.
The right-hander has been sick for the previous few weeks, forcing him to miss the latter a part of South Africa’s tour to India. But he says he’s now ready and looking out ahead to main the crew on the finals.
“I feel good,” he instructed media on the pre-match press briefing on Sunday. “I was out of action the last week in India due to sickness. I’ve come here to Australia still kind of recovering but I’ve gotten over that now. I’ve had a few sessions in the net and I’m feeling good ahead of the next couple of days and weeks.”
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Bavuma’s availability means that he’s set to be restored on the high of the batting order.
“In terms of the team, there won’t be any surprises in terms of everyone within the group. We know what we want to do, we know how we’re going to do it and we’re all quite comfortable around all of that.”
The Proteas enter this World Cup on the again of a heartbreaking exit in the earlier one in the United Arab Emirates and Oman the place they narrowly missed out on a semi-final place due to internet run-rate. The skipper stated they’d learnt some invaluable classes from that have, one among which was that they’d to hit the bottom working in match one.
“Probably the biggest takeaway from the previous World Cup is that every game matters,” Bavuma defined. “You want to obviously try and perform as well as you can but make sure that you keep a pulse on that run rate, that net run rate.
“If there’s an opportunity to really go well then make sure that you do so. We have Zimbabwe as our opening game and everything we’ve spoken about in our planning and meetings is to execute as well as we can in that game.
“We want to obviously start on a positive note, we don’t want to ease ourselves into the tournament because there really isn’t any time to do that, so tomorrow is an opportunity for us to execute our skills and our plans accordingly.”
The Proteas have performed Zimbabwe six occasions in T20Is, profitable 5 occasions with one abandonment. It means they are going to go into the sport as favourites. However, Zimbabwe impressed throughout the first spherical of the competitors the place they certified forward of West Indies, Ireland and Scotland.
“As a South African I was happy for our fellow African country, they’ve made it through the qualifiers,” Bavuma added. “They obviously had good performances to get them to this point. They’re definitely a side not to be taken likely so we’ll prepare accordingly as we always do. We’re excited and looking forward to that clash against them.”
The two groups are joined in Group B of the Super 12 stage of the competitors by India, Pakistan, Netherlands and Bangladesh, who’re up subsequent for South Africa on Thursday.
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Proteas squad – ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Australia 2022
Temba Bavuma (captain, DP World Lions), Quinton de Kock (Momentum Multiply Titans), Reeza Hendricks (DP World Lions), Marco Jansen (Gbets Warriors), Heinrich Klaasen (Momentum Multiply Titans), Keshav Maharaj (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Aiden Markram (Momentum Multiply Titans), David Miller (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Lungi Ngidi (Momentum Multiply Titans), Anrich Nortje (Gbets Warriors), Wayne Parnell (Six Gun Grill Western Province), Kagiso Rabada (DP World Lions), Rilee Rossouw (ITEC Knights), Tabraiz Shamsi (Momentum Multiply Titans), Tristan Stubbs (Gbets Warriors).
South Africa Group Stage Itinerary
Monday, 24 October – 19:00 (10:00 SAST)
South Africa vs Zimbabwe – Bellerive Oval, Hobart
Thursday, 27 October – 14:00 (05:00 SAST)
South Africa vs Bangladesh – SCG, Sydney
Sunday, 30 October – 19:00 (13:00 SAST)
India vs South Africa – Perth Stadium, Perth
Thursday, 03 November – 19:00 (10:00 SAST)
Pakistan vs South Africa – SCG, Sydney
Sunday, 06 November – 10:30 (02:00 SAST)
South Africa vs Netherlands – Adelaide Oval, Adelaide