Bavuma doesn't want Proteas to choke on past failures

Temba Bavuma doesn’t consult a thesaurus for another word for “choking”. 

“I've used it a couple of times,” he remarked at the Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium in New Delhi on Friday. 

South Africa is at a World Cup, so the inquiry was inevitable.

The Proteas have a poor history at ICC events and past failures weigh ever more heavy as each tournament passes without South Africa’s name etched onto a trophy.

Choking has been a central feature in some, though not all of those defeats.

Ahead of the team’s World Cup opener against Sri Lanka on Saturday, the players are aware of how previous generations’ mishaps can and most likely will be used against them by opponents.

“You don't really hear it coming about within the team and I think there are guys who believe that (choking) applies to this team, and there are guys who don't believe that it applies to this team,” said Bavuma.

The Proteas captain doesn’t want his players — even those who don’t feel choking is applicable to the current group — to shy away from it being part of the team’s story.

“That's the most important (reason) that I bring it 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 we will always have to deal with. So mentally, make sure that you know how you're going to deal with it,” said Bavuma.

Confronting that mental hurdle will not be unique to the Proteas — it is the same for the other nine teams competing at the World Cup and Bavuma said he took solace from hearing other captains having to deal with different demands.

“The emotions and effects are the same for all of us.”

“As a South African team we know we will have that narrative that we have to get over and it will be there until we win a trophy. The guys understand that, we are not oblivious to it. Our way to deal with it is to be fully focused [on] and obsessed [with] each other, and how we want to go about doing our work on the field,” said Bavuma.

Sri Lanka will be tricky first opponents.

They’ve played a lot recently, beating Pakistan and Bangladesh, but suffered a heavy defeat on home soil in the final of the Asia Cup when India bowled them out for 50.

They’ve lost one of their main bowlers in Wanindu Hasaranga for the entire tournament and there are doubts about their mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana, who has been struggling with a hamstring injury for the past few weeks. 

Still, a batting line-up containing the two Kusals: Perera, he of the glorious fourth-innings century in Durban four years ago, and Mendis, while the unique wristiness of Charith Asalanka will demand respect. 

Despite having one of their two warm-up matches washed out and the other also affected by rain, Bavuma said he is satisfied with his team’s preparation.

He is aware that the kind of slow starts that curtailed the 2019 team’s campaign in England, and which have been a feature of South Africa’s play across formats in the past few years, must be avoided at this year’s World Cup. 

“We’ve spoken a lot about that. We have tried to find practical ways to start well. The focus and the awareness is there,” he said.

As is the need to strike the right balance to ensure the players are performing near their best at the right times in what is a long tournament.

“It’s a process of nine games, getting into the playoffs, and there is almost a belief that once we get into the playoffs anything can happen and things can go in our favour,” said Bavuma.