South Africa start build-up to Twenty20 World Cup

(Reuters) - South Africa begin their build-up to next year’s Twenty20 World Cup when they take on Bangladesh in the first match of a two-game series on Sunday. The fixture is the first of 12 Twenty20s the Proteas will contest this season, culminating with the World Twenty20 tournament in India in March. South Africa will also take on New Zealand, India, England and Australia in an attempt to claim what has been for them an elusive ICC competition win. Sunday’s clash in Mirpur will be the first time they have played since their one-day international World Cup semi-final heartache against India in the semi-finals in New Zealand in March, the last of the test-playing nations to get back to the wicket. “It’s the start of the season for us,” captain Faf du Plessis told reporters on Saturday. “A lot of the guys haven’t played a lot of cricket, except for the guys that played in the Indian Premier League, so everyone is coming in fresh, that’s what you need in Twenty20 cricket. “It’s nice from a captaincy point of view that the Twenty20’s have a bit of importance this season, last year the focus was on one-day cricket.” The Proteas’ last appearance at the Shere Bangla National Stadium was the last four encounter against India in the Twenty20 World Cup last year, where their opponents chased down a competitive total of 172. Du Plessis said it will be important to adapt quickly to the conditions. “On the day you have to assess what the pitch is like,” he said. “We haven’t played here for a while, the last game we played here was during the World Twenty20. "We have to make the decisions on the day, hopefully it’s a good wicket. If it’s low and slow we will have to adapt accordingly.”