India vs South Africa: Temba Bavuma’s WTC champs get set for their hardest challenge | Cricket News
Expeditions to the subcontinent seem longer than they actually are for visiting sides. South Africa, on the foothills of their 37-day trek in India, had spent 32 days in Pakistan, by the end of which they were utterly spent. Usually, the heat hits them first; mercifully, it’s late autumn in the eastern neck of India, where the visitors complete their Test engagements. But the humidity would be draining. Dust and congestion would vex them; gun-toting commandos would flank them, as they were in Pakistan, for coach Shukri Conrad to irritatingly quip: “You come here and all you ever see is armoured vehicles to and from the ground, and you stay in a hotel all day.” Or for batsman Tony de Zorzi to say, sighing: “You have to sleep a bit longer to make your days a bit shorter.” These are the challenges they would encounter even before they had stepped onto the cricket field. Before the thoroughbred pace pair of Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah begin to hum their new-ball duet, before the dexterous spin …
