- Proteas coach Mark Boucher said the lessons taken from the Pakistan tour will make them a better team.
- South Africa lost the third T20 against Pakistan by four wickets after a dreadful start to their innings before being rescued by David Miller's knock.
- Boucher is also looking forward to the domestic T20 tournament that starts on Friday.
Proteas coach Mark Boucher said the lessons they’ve taken from the Pakistan tour will make them a better team going forward.
This came after South Africa lost the third T20 against Pakistan in Lahore on Sunday to lose the series 2-1. They also lost the Test series 2-0 to cap what has been a terrible three years of sub-continent touring.
Of the tours to Sri Lanka and India where SA have been handsomely beaten in Test cricket, they more than held their own in the white ball exchanges.
Boucher had a young squad from an international for the Pakistan T20s because of the senior players who had left to self-isolate in South Africa of the now-cancelled Australia tour.
There were, however, senior domestic heads in Pakistan who could have and should have been able to avoid the soft moments that cost the Proteas.
Boucher though is happy with the depth they are building with regards to the shortest format squad.
"We’re certainly a nice group of players together and our depth is getting to where we want it to be. We’re giving guys opportunities and seeing the kind of players we have, but because of Covid-19 reasons, we’ve had to use a big pool of players. They are learning some tough lessons and those lessons will stand us in good stead," Boucher said.
"There were a lot of lessons the guys have learnt from this particular tour and it can only help them in becoming better players."
With the Franchise T20 tournament starting on Friday in Durban, Boucher has a full week in which most of SA’s T20 cricketers will be jousting for the T20 World Cup spots.
With the International Cricket Council yet to host a tournament during the Covid-19 era, it remains to be seen whether bigger squads will be picked.
Boucher is keen on seeing the goods that’ll be delivered in the tournament as for some of them, it could be their only chance to stake a national claim.
"The media was writing the guys off a bit and I think they put up a good fight in the series and going into the T20 competition, it’s going to be important to see how these guys go and how they put some pressure on the squad. It’s a world cup year, so everyone stands a chance of getting into the squad as well," Boucher said.