South Africa‘s limited-overs captain Temba Bavuma doesn’t want to give too much emphasis on what happened in the last ODI series against India at home. Bavuma believes that a series win against India will give the hosts a hell lot of confidence going forward.
Notable that India beat the hosts by 5-1 in 6-match ODI series in 2018 in which India captain Virat Kohli scored 558 runs with 3 hundreds. It was India’s first-ever ODI series win in the rainbow nation.
“We will have to get things right in the next ODI series against India. I’m not too worried about what happened in that 2018 series. I’m more concerned about establishing our own style of play and implementing our strategy to good effect. An ODI series win against India would give us a helluva lot of confidence, and some momentum ahead of the games to follow,” Temba Bavuma spoke to Daily Maverick.
Temba Bavuma who was appointed South Africa’s white-ball captain last year in March is quite satisfied with how the proteas have made progress in last year. Bavuma believes that South African batters play spin better now which reflects in results.
In the Men’s T20 World Cup concluded in November last year, South Africa won 4 out of 5 games as they missed the semifinal berth due to net run rate.
“Perceptions are changing about this South African white-ball team. In the past, it was said that we lacked the ability to take on spin and that we struggled in overseas conditions. I feel like we proved a lot of people wrong at the T20 World Cup. We’ve just got to keep building towards that next T20 World Cup in Australia, which will require another shift in mindset,” he added.
“More emphasis on process, rather than results”- Temba Bavuma
Bavuma also stated that the team is not looking too far ahead as they will take one series at a time. Also, he stressed that they would focus more on getting the process right, rather than worrying about results.
“Perhaps we should take heart from what the T20 side has accomplished in recent times. That team didn’t place much emphasis on results, but rather on the process. We really came to grips with how we wanted to play. There was a lot of energy and intensity, especially with regard to our fielding,” he said.
Under the leadership of Temba Bavuma, South Africa beat West Indies by 3-2 in the T20I series, also clean swept Ireland by 3-0. However, their ODI results didn’t go their way as they lost to Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Also, their series against Ireland ended in a draw.
“Then we start to win consistently. Since the beginning of the West Indies series last June, we’ve won 13 out of 16 T20s. It’s something we want to replicate across the formats. If we bring the same energy to our ODI approach, we will build more confidence and momentum, and the big results will come,” Bavuma concluded.
The first match between India and South Africa will begin on January 19 at Paarl.