South Africa are all set to begin their highly-anticipated India tour with the Dharamsala T20I on Sunday (September 15).

On the eve of the match, assistant batting coach Lance Klusener spoke to the media and said that Proteas batsmen will look to take advantage of India’s inexperienced pace trio – Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed and Deepak Chahar – during the three-match T20I series.

Having made their T20I debut last year, Khaleel and Chahar have played 11 and 2 games for India respectively in the shortest format, while Saini, who started his international career during the West Indies tour last month, has represented the country in 3 T20Is.

“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 told reporters.

However, he made it clear that by no means he underestimates the Indian attack.

“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 added.

When asked what he expects from a player like Temba Bavuma, who is not deemed as a T20 specialist, Klusener said: “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.”

He also acknowledged that Bavuma’s game will be more about rotating the strike and give opportunities to big hitters like David Miller, Dwayne Pretorius or Andile Phehlukwayo.

“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.

“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 continued.

Klusener feels playing in India is a different challenge from other overseas conditions as it’s not just about adapting to the pitches but also to conditions and the culture of the place.

“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.

“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.

(With PTI inputs)