South Africa head coach Mark Boucher sought to dwell on the positives from his IPL-bound players missing the Pakistan series, saying it will help their T20 World Cup preparation in India and also allow him to test his team’s bench strength.
Five top South African players including Quinton de Kock, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, David Miller and Anrich Nortje will be available only for the first two ODIs against Pakistan before they fly to India to begin their quarantine period ahead of the IPL beginning April 9.
“There are pros and cons of these players missing matches in this series but we have known this for sometime because the BCCI and CSA have a long standing agreement to release players for IPL and the scheduling didn’t quite work out because of the Covid-19 situation,” Boucher told a virtual press conference.
The former South African wicketkeeper batsman said one of the pros was that the players will be playing the IPL in India where the World T20 is scheduled later this year.
“I think their appearances in the IPL going into the World T20 will help us,” said Boucher.
“Playing in a good strong competition against top strong opposition who they are likely to face in the World T20 they are going to get first hand information about the different venues, opposition we expect to meet up in the World event.
“Look at it positively they are not going on holidays and it also gives us an opportunity to have a lookout over other guys in the fray,” he added.