South Africa head coach Mark Boucher believes that playing in the upcoming second half of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) will be immensely crucial for the Proteas players to get ready for ICC T20 World Cup 2021 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The remaining 31 games of the IPL 2021 will be played between September 19 and October 15 in the UAE. The T20 World Cup 2021 will be also held from October 17 in UAE and Oman and Boucher feels the IPL 14 will put South African players in good practice for the “big tournament”.
As reported by ESPNcricinfo, Boucher stated: “We've spoken to the guys going to the IPL. They need to stay quite disciplined and realize we want to peak at the right time as a unit.”
He further added, “They'll be picking up bits of information about playing in those conditions that will really get them ready for a big tournament and if they manage themselves well and get some good time in the nets and get used to facilities it will stand us in good stead. It will be a great experience as long as guys look after themselves and peak at the right time.”
Meanwhile, South Africa has been in red-hot form in the T20I cricket having recorded a hat-trick of away series wins against the West Indies (3-2), Ireland (2-1), and now whitewashed Sri Lanka 3-0.
On the T20I series win in Sri Lanka, Boucher said: “This team realized that we are definitely not the finished product, so there are a lot of things we speak about.”
He signed off by saying, “We had a good chat about the lessons we've learned and where we want to go as a team. We tied the record for the most T20 wins by a South African team. That was one of the records that we were playing for. We understand that going into a World Cup each game is as important as the others and this becomes a habit. This is just part of the growth of the team.”
The performance also enabled the Proteas to equal their record of seven successive victories in this format, first achieved in 2009 when they beat Australia twice at home and then won five matches in a row in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in England.
(With ANI Inputs)
