People must remember that the seamers who struggled against England and Afghanistan are the same players who’ve been performing for South Africa for the last 18 months.

This defence of the Proteas seam attack came from Imran Tahir, who backed the seamers to come good against the West Indies after two tough games in the World T20 tournament.

The Proteas failed to defend 229 in their first match against England, and were given quite a scare against Afghanistan before winning by 37 runs.

One of them is expected to make way for an extra specialist spinner in Aaron Phangiso for Friday night’s clash with the West Indies in Nagpur, where conditions will differ greatly from what they experienced in Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium.

‘I know the seamers had a tough time in the last two games we played,’ Tahir said. ‘People also need to remember these are the same guys that have been doing the job for us in the last year and a half during which time they did very well.’

The leg-spinner also brushed aside any suggestions that South Africa might have some baggage from the last time they played at Nagpur, the same venue where South Africa lost the third Test by 124 runs on their tour to India last year.

‘No, that was Test cricket and this is T20 cricket which are totally different,’ Tahir said. ‘If you look at our record in T20 cricket we’ve been really solid and playing really good cricket. That gives us a lot of confidence. We just need to deliver on the day.’