Playing in IPL will be a great advantage for South Africa players, feels Mark Boucher

The second leg of the Indian Premier League will serve as a great platform for the players to prepare themselves for the T20 World Cup which will follow the IPL. Having won the T20I series against Sri Lanka, South Africa are very confident of their chances in the showpiece event and coach Mark Boucher feels that playing in IPL will further help the players get into their grooves.

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Both IPL and T20 World Cup will be played in UAE thus players will get used to the conditions before the T20 World Cup starts. Several South Africa players, including David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Kagiso Rabada, Aiden Markram will be part of the second leg of IPL.

"We've spoken to the guys going to the IPL 2021. They need to stay quite disciplined and realise we want to peak at the right time as a unit. They'll be picking up bits of information about playing in those conditions that will really get them ready for a big tournament and if they manage themselves well and get some good time in the nets and get used to facilities it will stand us in good stead," ESPNcricinfo quoted Boucher as saying.

“It will be a great experience as long as guys look after themselves and peak at the right time," he added.

South Africa has been on a juggernaut in T20Is of late. They will go into the World Cup with back to back series wins over West Indies, Ireland and Sri Lanka. Talking about South Africa’s clean-sweep over Sri Lanka, Boucher said: “This team realised that we are definitely not the finished product, so there’s a lot of things we speak about. We had a good chat about the lessons we’ve learnt and where we want to go as a team. We tied the record for the most T20 wins by a South African team.”

“That was one of the records that we were playing for. We understand that going into a World Cup each game is as important as the others and this becomes a habit. This is just part of the growth of the team,” he added.