Kaif said that they will have to treat the tournament as a new beginning to nullify all the pressure that is upon them as defending champions. "It will be a fresh start because last year we played in India, the conditions suited our bowlers and the batsmen and fielders supported them well," Kaif said. "But this is a new start." Adapting to foreign conditions will be another key factor to the team and kaif agreed as he indicated that the bounce and pace of wickets in South Africa are not the same as they are in India.
South Africa has always hosted good batting tracks which also has good pace and bounce for the bowlers which helps keep the match alive. SA had successfully hosted the inaugural season of the T20 world championships 2 years back and none of the matches could be called low scoring. The only thing that the teams will be missing thsi time around is the local support, but what we see from watching the current matches between SA and Australia, the crowd support is very high and there are one or two Indian flags amongst the crowd, always. If not for the players, the spectators may flood the stadiums to catch Shah Rukh Khan, Priety Zinta, Shilpa Shetty in action :PThe presence of Smith in the team will help the team in performance. Smith brings in experience playing on South African conditions and the form that he carries playing host to the Australian team now. He will also be assisting Shane Warne as the vice captain of the team and the addition of Tyron Henderson will give the additional boost. However the team will miss the services of Pakistan fast bowler Sohail Tanvir who played a major part in the win last year both with the bat and the ball. The Pakistan Player contracts were suspended after the refusal of the Pakistan cricket board to participate in the IPL following the attack in Mumbai.
"We are going to miss some key players: Tanvir did really well last season and his four overs were something special every game," Kaif said. "Kamran Akmal did his job well whenever given the chance, both behind the stumps and with the bat. We have some new players this season so I'm looking forward to meeting the entire squad."
Yusuf said Tanvir was just one of the building blocks of Rajasthan's success and this year the team would need to move ahead in his absence. "Having won the championship will help us," Kaif said. "That and the youngsters having done well last season will also help. That was the secret to our success. In this format the opposition will look for the new players they don't know about and that helped last year for us." Jadeja, who hit headlines with his power cameos last year, said the responsibility is now on players like him to remain consistent. "The key player will be that one who will start well, remain consistent and then perform well in the main games as the tournament progresses."
Addition of Shipla Shetty will add to the glamor quotient and the players will want to perform really well to receive hugs and kisses from their owner, specially after they saw Priety Zinta throw a few at her players in the last season :P Jokes apart, There will be battles fought both on and off the field as to which team has the best looking owner this season :P
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Kunal Janu
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