The ‘chokers’ tag has the South Africa team divided with a few members not ready to accept it but captain Temba Bavuma feels that the team needs to accept the narrative instead of fighting it.
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Bavuma also added that the chokers tag will go away once the team wins a trophy.
“I’ve used it a couple of times but you don’t really hear it coming about within the team,” Bavuma said ahead of their Cricket World Cup opener. “I think there are guys who believe that it applies to this team, there are guys who don’t believe that it applies to this team.
“The belief amongst the team, that’s the most important bit I bring up to just make sure that we’re not kind of skirting around the issue that it’s something that is there, it’s something that will always have to deal with.”
“I think the biggest thing, at least for myself, is to accept that it is what it is. As a South African team, we know we’re going to have that chip on our back, or that narrative that we have to get over. And that’s always going to be there until we win a trophy,” he said.
“But look, that pressure, that expectation, that’s always going to be there for us as a team, for any Proteas cricketing team. That’s something you just got to deal with I guess however, where you are.”
The conditions in India are expected to favour the spinners, but the South Africa captain said that he will rely on their pacers to get the job done in the World Cup.
“With the South African attack as predictable as it may be, we always kind of lean to planning around our fast bowlers. That is our strength as a South African team,” Bavuma said.
“That’s no secret to anyone who would be planning against us. With that being said when we have a guy like Keshav, guys like Shamsi, that does give us our opportunity there when the conditions do speak to playing more than one spinner, we do have we do have guys we can step in and do that quite well.
“But I think the biggest thing like you said is the conditions and trying to put together a team, trying to put together a tactic that speaks to those conditions and conditions that we can exploit as best as we can.”
South Africa will open their World Cup campaign against Sri Lanka on Saturday.
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