South Africa will like to give a tough fight to India as India are going to play with inexperienced pace trio of Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed and Deepak Chahar during the three-match T20 International series, said South Africa assistant batting coach Lance Klusener on Sunday.
“Looking at the Indian team, that (inexperienced bowling attack) is an area we are going to take advantage of just like I suppose, you look at opposing teams and at areas, which you can take advantage of,” Klusener said. “They are great cricketers and we are not taking anything away from that and our focus will be on ourselves and little areas that we can take advantage and maybe that’s one of them.”
“He recently got a hundred in the CSA (domestic ) T20 final. It’s easy to pigeonhole him and say okay he plays Test cricket. But Temba is wonderful all-round cricketer. Yes he needs to learn a couple of all-round options and that’s really about it, Klusener defended the pint-sized batsman’s selection.
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“He is not the biggest guy, who can muscle the ball over the fence, but there are different ways of doing it. I am uncomfortable saying he is a red-ball cricketer. He has played two ODIs with a hundred and a fifty, so he is a good cricketer,” the 48-year-old said for Bavuma.
“He will certainly get his opportunity on this tour and I think he is ready to make transition into being somebody in that engine room, who can be good at rotating strike and have good plans so that other hitters like David, Dwayne and Andile, some of the biggest hitters on the planet, can bat around him,” he further shared.
However, playing in India is a different challenge from other overseas conditions, feels Klusener.
“The biggest challenge playing in India is conditions and that’s not necessarily the wicket but also the weather. Full press conferences, lot of things you have to deal with,” he said.
“It’s a wonderful challenge, not everybody had privilege whether you have played here for South Africa A to play in full noisy stadiums, which will wake you up in morning and there are a lot of things off the ball that you have to deal with it as well. Once you can get your mind and head around it, it makes playing a lot easier,” he concluded.
