Allrounder Wiaan Mulder said the team made the most of their post-World Test Championship celebrations and are ready to look ahead to the two-match test series against their African neighbours. 

Mulder said he is especially excited for the new faces on the team and what they could bring to the table. “There are a lot of guys here who want to prove a point: why they are here, how well they have played over the last couple of domestic seasons to get here,” he said.

Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Lesego Senokwane, Codi Yusuf, Dewald Brevis, and Prenelan Subrayen are the new debutants, in for injured test captain Temba Bavuma, and Marco Jansen, Aiden Markram, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, and Tristan Stubbs, who will be rested. There is also a recall for Zubayr Hamza.

The newest additions to the team brought their A-game to the domestic season and would certainly want to build on that when they take the field for their country.

Senokwane was the fourth-leading run-scorer in the first-class competition, while Pretorius scored three hundreds in seven first-class matches last summer, including an under-pressure knock in the final. Subrayen and Yusuf were the second and sixth-leading wicket takers.

Mulder said that after the World Test Championship, the confidence level in the camp is high, although it is essentially a new squad that will face Zimbabwe. Whoever plays it is still “the best team at the time, and we look at ourselves as world champions”.

“Everybody has that in the back of their minds. We are training like we are the best in the world, not like we are trying to become something new.”

Saturday’s first Test in Bulawayo will start at 10:00.

OFM Sport/Ilse Smalberger mvh