IND vs SA - Facing New Ball Quite A Challenge In India: Temba Bavuma Ahead Of First T20I

South Africa captain Temba Bavuma feels facing the swinging ball in the powerplay will be one of the main challenges for his team in the three-match T20I series against India, beginning in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. India relied on their batting might to bounce back from being 0-1 down to post a 2-1 win in the recently-concluded three-T20I series against Australia. The focus will now shift to an identical match-up against the Proteas, the final dress rehearsal for both the teams before the T20 World Cup in Australia next month.

"Facing the new ball bowlers (in India) is quite challenging, they make the ball to swing and move in quite a bit, a bit more than what we are accustomed to in South Africa. That's obviously a challenge you have to manoeuvre around," the South African white-ball skipper said on the eve of the opening T20I.

The chinks in India's pace bowling armour were badly exposed in the three-match T20Is against Australia.

In the series decider in Hyderabad on Sunday, the two seasoned pace duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar together conceded 79 runs from seven overs, with the latter claiming one wicket.

Harshal Patel, who is considered a death over specialist, also was a big letdown and the South African skipper knows what it takes to succeed in India.

"The key is to limit the damage and not allow the wickets to fall and try and get the momentum going. But yeah, Bhuvi and Bumrah they always challenge you with the new ball up front," he added.

Bhuvneshwar, by the way, is rested for the series ahead of the World Cup as the pace workload will be shared among Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Patel and Arshdeep Singh.

India's batting looks in safe hands with Virat Kohli's return to form and Rohit Sharma leading