Proteas skipper Bavuma hopes for 'batting friendly conditions' in Windies series

Proteas Test captain Temba Bavuma is hoping for less capricious pitches to be prepared for their series against the West Indies.

The West Indies, whom the Proteas meet in the first of two Tests starting at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Tuesday, don't quite carry the batting threat that would make Bavuma and South Africa's national men's cricket team red ball coach Shukri Conrad stay awake at night.

However, they possess a bowling attack, that in perfect conditions, can and will make life rather uncomfortable for the Proteas' batting group that's desperately in need of runs.

Those runs have been hard to come by on SA's rather difficult pitches, with the 2021/22 series against India seeing 300 as a team total being crossed just once across 12 innings.

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The batting stakes improved for the Bangladesh series, but the tourists understandably had less batting and bowling venom.

Bavuma said they did not consult with groundsmen, but added they know they had to make runs regardless of conditions.

"I'm hoping for batting friendly conditions, but as a captain, conditions are conditions," Bavuma said.

"As a team, we have to assess them as well as they can and adapt accordingly. Also, we must make sure we stay positive in looking for ways to stay positive in terms of scoring in the conditions.

"There hasn't been a request from my side with regards to speaking to groundsmen and I think the coach hasn't done so as well.

"From a mindset point of view, that's the one thing we can control as a team and that's how we'll be measuring ourselves."

The lack of centuries from batters was a talking point throughout Mark Boucher's coaching tenure, especially last year.

Rob