South African cricketers like Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, and Keshav Maharaj have spent a considerable amount of time in the T20 bubble in UAE. They have discussed the improvement of the team in the last 12 months.
According to Betway analysts, van Der Dussen will be the top scorer for South Africa in the UAE.
Keeping the team healthy amidst this pandemic, during the game is very important.
Apart from the practice, the players are not allowed to go anywhere, and keeping sanity during this hard time is quite essential. The performance can hugely get impacted by this. But van der Dussen confirms that they are well looked after in the bubble. Even though he and his wife Lara have to spend a lot of time in the room, it has a big TV and living space to keep them entertained. To keep himself active, he uses a lot of indoor fitness equipment and there are gym facilities in the hotel too. The gym room here is used as a meeting place for the team and also doubles up as the medical room.
Even though it is essential to maintain distance, staying entirely isolated is not healthy either. Hence the team meets every day in the dining area of the hotel, where they eat, drink and watch sports together. It helps them to stay connected and also helps them to keep their sanity in these tough times.
There are both experienced and new players in the South African team.
But the performances by all of them individually in different matches depict the upward trajectory of the team.
Following their previous performances in the last few matches, the team is quite confident that they are in a good place now. The change in captaincy was an important occurrence in the last 12 months, and the team has been experiencing positive results since then.
The new team has confirmed that apart from regular practices and performance enhancement programs, playing with the experienced team members has helped them a lot to improve in the game. The team is focusing not only physically but also on mental preparation. Van Der Dussen says that it is essential not to burn out completely before the actual game starts in a few weeks. They would have some busy time coming up soon, and hence they should keep themselves fit in all the possible ways.
The players confirm that they put as much effort and time to improve their mental health, as they put in their physical fitness. However, things can get really intense on the night of the actual game.
Van Der Dussen says that he gives 100 percent during the practice session. But once done, he mentally switches himself off till the next time he is on the field. This makes him completely ready for the game and reduces the chances of him getting stressed out. When not on the field, he loves surfing through different shows on Netflix.
