IND vs SA: Mark Boucher Feels South Africa Don't Have Depth Like India To Field Two Different Teams

South Africa National Cricket Team head coach Mark Boucher has said that ideally, South Africa National Cricket should have fielded two different white-ball teams for the recently concluded series against India National Cricket Team. However, he feels that the Proteas don’t have the depth like Team India.

India National Cricket Team under the leadership of Rohit Sharma defeated South Africa by 2-1 in the T20I series. Also, India’s second-string side under the leadership of Shikhar Dhawan managed to defeat South Africa by 2-1 in the ODI series.

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After the conclusion of the South Africa tour of India 2022, Mark Boucher was asked if South Africa should have fielded two different teams for the India series, Boucher said in a perfect world, “yes”. However, he added that South Africa don’t have depth and they had pressure to win every game so they decided to field the first-choice squad for both series. He said:

“We saw the benefits of it with the Indian team fresh and bouncing, rearing to go. Ours were maybe a little fatigued.”

“But it’s also difficult because we don’t have the depth India does. We also had pressure to try and win every game. So we decided to stick with the squad we thought could win games. But in hindsight, it could have been a better option.”

Mark Boucher said that the Australian conditions will perfectly suit the Proteas bowlers in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. He said:

“Australia will suit our fast bowlers a lot better. We have got some good pace, some good bounce in our attack, so we need to keep the aggression there.

“I think the last one-day game (against India) we played, there wasn’t enough aggression,” Boucher said.

He added that keeping the players physically and mentally fresh will be crucial for them in the lead-up to the World Cup. He asserted:

“For the T20 stuff, keeping the guys fresh. We have come off a long tour of England straight into India, a couple of guys have been playing in the Caribbean league as well. Keeping the guys mentally and physically fresh is going to be vital for the management and myself to monitor.”

India’s bowling attack in the ODIs bowled with far more aggression than what we did – Mark Boucher

The South Africa National Cricket Team head coach was surprised to see the Indian bowling attack being more aggressive than the South African bowling attack in the ODI series. He said:

“Surprisingly India’s bowling attack in the ODIs bowled with far more aggression than what we did. We did chat about it and the way Anrich Nortje bowled tonight was a positive sign for me, especially going into conditions where that will be quite effective. I think we have taken some lessons and we have had good chats behind closed doors to speak about things that we can get better at.”

Mark Boucher further spoke about white-ball captain Temba Bavuma’s struggle for runs since his return from an injury. He said:

“Temba Bavuma would try to get some sort of form before the World Cup unfortunately he fell ill. We still have two warm-up games. I think the conditions would fit his style of batting. We will try to get him up and running for World Cup.”

The Proteas captain Temba Bavuma had an extremely poor run with the bat in the South Africa tour of India 2022. In the three-match T20I series against India, he registered scores of 0, 0 and 3. In the first ODI, he scored 8 runs off 12 balls, before being castled by Shardul Thakur. He missed out on the last two games of the series due to sickness.

After the defeat in the India ODI series, South Africa have suffered a major setback and they are at risk of missing out on direct qualification for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. Mark Boucher talked about South Africa’s ODI situation and said:

“That’s not ideal and the reason is that we have not had continuity in our ODI team and there’s been various reasons for that – players leaving to come to the IPL, COVID etc.

“There has been inconsistency. Come January, the guys know what is required against England and Netherlands and if we don’t we just got to accept the fact that we have to play the qualifiers. We understand the situation we are in.”

Also Read: IND vs SA: Fatigue Played A Part In Disappointing Proteas Results In India, Says Mark Boucher