ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2022

October 23, 2022

Temba Bavuma

Bellerive Oval

South Africa

Pre Match Media Conference

Q. Hi, Temba. How are you feeling? I know you haven't batted obviously since India. Maybe just talk us through what you've been doing in the last couple of weeks. Are you feeling in good touch?

TEMBA BAVUMA: Yeah, I feel good. I was obviously out of action the last week or so in India with sickness. I came here to Australia still kind of recovering. But I've gotten over that.

I've had a couple of sessions in the nets. Yeah, feeling good and ready for next couple of days, next couple of weeks.

Q. Obviously, exciting to see Zimbabwe in the group stage. What do you make of their performance in the group stage? A few decent wins in group A?

TEMBA BAVUMA: Yeah, obviously as a South African, we were happy that a fellow African country made it through the qualifiers. They obviously had good performances to get them to that point.

We as a team, we just had our meeting, and we're looking forward to that clash against them. Definitely not a side to be taken lightly. So we'll prepare accordingly as we always do.

Yeah, looking forward to that encounter with Zimbabwe.

Q. I have a question on how you guys are going to approach this World Cup. We all know what happened the last World Cup. What other conversations are you guys having specifically in this World Cup in terms of how you want to play?

TEMBA BAVUMA: I'm not sure what you mean by what happened in the last World Cup. Probably the biggest thing taken from the previous World Cup is obviously every game matters.

You want to try to obviously perform as well as you can, but make sure that you keep a pulse on that net run rate. If there's an opportunity to really win well, make sure that we do so.

We obviously have Zimbabwe as our opening game. There, everything that we've spoken about in our meetings and our preparation, we'll be looking to execute them as well as we can. We obviously want to start on a positive note. We don't want to kind of ease ourselves into the tournament. There really is no time to do that.

Tomorrow will really be an opportunity for us to execute our skills and our plans accordingly.

Q. Temba, you just spoke about opportunity right now, and I'm thinking about where you are right now as a player with all the pressure that you're experiencing right now. Do you see that as pressure or as an opportunity for you to do something special? I mean, not every cricketer ever is going to be in your position to experience the pressure that you've experienced in the recent past. Do you see it as an opportunity or as a privilege? What's your take, what's your perspective in terms of what you are going through as a player and as a captain of the country?

TEMBA BAVUMA: I think the element of pressure, I think that's something that's not really unique to me as a player, as a sportsman. I think all players have to deal with that pressure. Yes, it comes in different forms.

Obviously being the captain, it's a lot more blown up. All eyes are on you. There's a lot more critique regarding your performances and just how you are as a leader.

Obviously, like I said, with the title of being captain comes that responsibility, and it's not something that one can really shy away from. So with all the, like I say, the pressure that is upon me, I'll face up to it as honorably and with as much gratitude as I can.

But I think the element of pressure is something that all players kind of have to face.

Q. Temba, you're obviously aware of the conversations around Reeza Hendricks' hot streak. How are you thinking of shaping up that top three or four? Have you guys made a decision in terms of who might play or who might sit out? What are those conversations like?

TEMBA BAVUMA: I'm aware of the conversations happening in my head regarding my game, regarding how I'm going to go about leading the team. I'm not aware of what's happening outside of what's been spoken about or discussed with the team.

In terms of the team, there won't be any surprises from that point of view, at least for the guys here in the team. We know what we're going to do. We know how we're going to do it. And we're all quite comfortable around all of that.

That's where my focus is. That's where the focus is with the guys that are here on the team. Anything else, that's for other ears, I guess.

Q. We saw in the first round in Hobart, Jason Holder and the other captains were talking about the success that their bowlers had bowling almost sort of like test match lengths was sort of the word they were using there. Do you think that's almost going to suit the batting lineup's game? Is that something you looked at in terms of the pitches there and also how the bowlers are performing over the last week?

TEMBA BAVUMA: Yeah, that's definitely something we spoke about within our batting and bowling meetings. We've seen that it has been challenging up front with that new ball.

Obviously bowlers are trying to challenge that off stump. Our off stump as batters. So we want to be as circumspect as we can be, obviously with the right intensity, still looking to put pressure on the bowlers.

But we understand up front it is going to be challenging. I think probably looking at our batting blueprint, it probably works within our favour and how we've tried to shape up our batting, our momentum into the innings.