Cape Town - The last time the Proteas’ men’s team toured India the world was an entirely different place.
It was March 2020 and nobody could even begin to imagine what would transpire over the next two years after the three-match ODI series was abruptly aborted with the Proteas rushed back home and into quarantine.
The Covid-19 pandemic was a crisis never experienced before. But thankfully after two years of strife the Proteas now return to the subcontinent with the cricket-crazed nation slowly returning to some form of normality after the Indian Premier League final was played before a world record 105 000-strong crowd last Sunday.
During the pandemic the Proteas were, however, forced to navigate through a mine-field of potential crises of their own. Coach Mark Boucher’s future was top of the list after Cricket SA levelled charges of alleged racism against the former national wicket-keeper, while the disunity with the team on how to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement created all sorts of mayhem.
But with all the charges against Boucher now dropped and there being a greater overall understanding of racial inequality, captain Temba Bavuma is hoping his team can begin to focus solely on beating India in the upcoming five-match T20I series.
"There's a lot of relief within the whole cricket fraternity that these off-field issues have been resolved and put to bed," Bavuma told reporters on Tuesday.
"There's a space now for everyone to focus on cricket and what happens on the field. It was a tough time for the team, players and management, but I think we handled it as well as we could.
"Going back over the months, the conversations and discussions we had were to make sure that guys are mentally in the right space.
"There weren't any underlying issues and indifferences between players and management, which helped us to deal with the situation that was at hand.
"As players, we welcome the fact that we can now focus on cricket and invest as much energy into that. At least for now," he added.
Bavuma’s charges certainly have a fair chance of maintaining their unblemished T20I series record in India. The Proteas defeated India 2-0 in 2015/2016 before sharing the series 1-1 in 2019/20.
The Proteas squad boasts an abundance of senior players such as Quinton de Kock, Kagiso Rabada, Aiden Markram and of course David Miller that all performed superbly in the recent IPL, while they also have a crop of exciting youngsters such as Marco Jansen and the uncapped Tristan Stubbs who also had a taste of the conditions in the same tournament.
“It is always good to have guys who are in-form. I mean a guy like David, lifting the trophy there with the Gujarat Titans, the confidence that he'll bring into the team, we look forward to that. The other guys also had good performances within the competition,” Bavuma said.
“It's always exciting to have fresh young faces within the team. We've seen a guy like Tristan Stubbs what he’s been able to do at domestic level. We'll try to create an environment that allows them to come in, you know, feel comfortable, and express his talent. I think it's exciting times ahead in many ways.”
Full India T20I series itinerary:
9 June: 1st T20I - Delhi
12 June: 2nd T20I - Cuttack
14 June: 3rd T20I - Vizag
17 June: 4th T20I - Rajkot
19 June: 5th T20I - Bengaluru
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