The Dolphins brains trust are happy with the progress made over the past few seasons and see the CLT20 as an opportunity to test how far they have come.

Lance Klusener understands better than most the pressures of touring India. He says it will take his team a bit of time to settle, but that they will be ready for their opening game against the Perth Scorchers on 20 September.

‘It is a great opportunity for us to start off the season with such a big tournament,’ Klusener told the Dolphins website. ‘We have a lot of youngsters going over for possibly the first time so it might just take us a few days to find our feet but I’m sure we will be well prepared come the 20th,’ said the coach.

The approach is simple for Klusener. He subscribes to the old adage of not fixing anything that isn’t broken.

‘Our preparations haven’t been too different. I don’t think that there is too much that you can do differently, we just need to practice and play the way that we know how to play.

‘We will get over there and assess the conditions, assess the stadiums and look to go hard from there,’ he explained.

The Dolphins CEO Jesse Chellan sent the team off with some encouraging words. He also stressed the importance of the CLT20 and that it’s a vital step in the journey to their ultimate goal.

‘A few years back we set ourselves a goal of winning the Champions League and, in so doing, become the best domestic team in the world and the team going to India this year is the first step in achieving this,’ said Chellan.

‘It’s been great to watch how some of the now well-established members of our squad have grown up so tremendously from the baby-faced youngsters that they were four years ago and I’m confident they will do us proud over in India.’

After the Dolphins opening encounter with the Perth Scorchers, they will play the Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders and one of the qualifiers. Generally, a team needs to win three of their four games to progress to the semi-finals.

The squad:

Daryn Smit, Daryn Dupavillon, Cody Chetty, Vaughn Van Jaarsveld, Khayelihle Zondo, Robert Frylinck, Morne Van Wyk (C), Kyle Abbott, Craig Alexander, Jonathan Vandiar, Keshav Maharaj, Prenelan Subrayen, Cameron Delport, Andile Phehlukwayo, Bongumusa Sibonelo Makhanya.

Photo: Sabelo Mngoma/Backpagepix