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Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli of India during the 3rd ODI match between Australia and India at Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, Australia, on October 25, 2025. (CREIMAS for BCCI)
The Proteas captain Temba Bavuma said that while the addition of stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the India ODI side bolsters the hosts but it’s nothing that the South Africans haven’t faced before. Kohli and Rohit returned to the Indian side for the first time since the Australia ODIs in October and immediately made an impact with a century and a half century respectively, helping the hosts win by 17 runs and take a 1-0 lead in the 3-match series.
“The inclusion of those two guys that does bolster the team. Like we said at the start of the series, these are two guys who have a lot of experience and a lot of skill and that can only benefit the team. It is not something that we are not aware of,” Bavuma said in the press conference on Tuesday.
“We played against, Rohit… I think it was in 2007, the T20 World Cup, I was still in school then. I mean, these guys have been around, so there is nothing new. These are world-class players. (Coming up against them is) nothing new, we have come across it. We have been on the bad end of it. But we have also had good times against them. It all just makes the series a lot more exciting,” he added.
Bavuma, who led South Africa to 11 Test wins in his 12 matches as skipper, including the recent Test series clean sweep against India, said that it was up to the higher-ups in the South Africa board to ensure there were more Tests against top countries.
“All of us have been crying for more cricket especially against the top nations. The Test series (against India) now, as much as there were two match series, a lot of us would have wanted to see it going to three or four-match series. When it’s a side like India, they would have raised the standard, which would have forced us to raise our standards as well.” “As players, we don’t get involved when it comes to the scheduling, the negotiation, and all of that. Those are for, I guess, the people in suits, the Cricket South Africa,” he said.
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