Cape Town: South Africa’s white-ball captain Temba Bavuma believes that the ODI series win against India will boost his team’s confidence. At the same time, he said that his main focus will be on implementing South Africa’s strategies well. After South Africa won the three-match Test series 2-1, their focus is now on the ODI series starting January 19 in Paarl. India last won the six-match ODI series 5-1 in 2018. It was his first ODI series win in South Africa.
Bavuma said, “We have to fix things in the next ODI series against India. I am not thinking about what happened in that 2018 series. I want to establish my own style of play and implement my strategy well.” I’m more concerned about what’s going on. The ODI series win against India will give us a lot of confidence and some momentum ahead of the games.”
Bavuma feels the image of South Africa’s white-ball team is changing after the campaign in the 2021 T20 World Cup. At the mega event in the UAE, South Africa won four of their five Group 1 matches, only to miss out on the semi-finals on net run-rates due to a loss in the first match of the tournament against Australia.
He said, “The perception about this South African white-ball team is changing. In the past, it was said that we lacked the ability to play spin and we struggled in overseas conditions. I think we did T20s. The World Cup has proved a lot of people wrong. We have to prepare for the next T20 World Cup in Australia, which will require another change in mindset.”
He believes that the ODI team with many new faces has a lot to achieve despite the series against the Netherlands being canceled due to the new Omicron virus of COVID-19.
He said, “The ODI team has a lot to achieve. There are some new faces in the team. Unfortunately, due to Corona, we did not get a chance to finish the series against Netherlands last December.”
first published:Jan. 16, 2022, 9:27 p.m.
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