Cape Town - The Proteas are in the Wild Wild West this Sunday for their T20 World Cup showdown against superpower India at Perth Stadium.
Senior cricket writer Zaahier Adams will be joined by SA U19 coach Shukri Conrad on the IOL Sport Show once again to analyse South Africa’s chances.
The burning issue is, of course, captain Temba Bavuma’s lack of form and whether the Proteas will continue with the skipper at the top of the order.
Conrad says emphatically that “Temba can’t drop himself”, and that the call remains solely that of coach Mark Boucher and convenor of selectors Victor Mpitsang.
“I feel for Temba at the minute… but don’t expect Temba to say: ‘I’m not playing’, because that would be a sign of weakness.
“The real question is aimed at Bouchie and Vic: ‘Are you guys still comfortable that his leadership outweighs his performance currently?’ If the answer to that is ‘yes’, well then Temba keeps playing.
“The next question that you need to ask is: ‘How important is captaincy in T20 cricket?’ I am going to come back to (the fact that) his form doesn’t warrant him playing, but (what about) his captaincy? Only Bouchie will know that.”
Furthermore, Conrad believes Sunday’s clash could be a dress rehearsal for a potential final later on in the tournament.
“I’m saying it again… I’m very bullish about our chances. You can say it was only Bangladesh, but the manner in which we took care of business (was impressive). The confidence we have as a batting and a bowling unit (means) we’ve all our bases covered.
“Sunday is going to be massive. Apart from being against the best team in the competition, India will be buoyant and will be confident of a big win over Pakistan.”
The much-anticipated match starts at 1pm SA time.
IOL Sport