SA U19 team desperate for positive result against Australia

South Africa play their first match of the tournament against Afghanistan on Friday, and Bulbulia says a win against the Aussies would do their confidence a world of good ahead of that match. South Africa is bidding to win their first world title since 2014 in the UAE.

"The game against Australia is extremely important for us to get back to winning ways as well as to create momentum going into the first World Cup game on Friday. It's also about getting through a few checkpoints before that opening group game."

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Bulbulia and his teammates took on Sri-Lanka in their first tune-up game in Windhoek on Sunday, having also come off a three-match series against India in Benoni.

He says facing Australia provides a more familiar style of play for them as opposed to the sub-continent teams.

The 19-year-old believes there were some positives that they took out of the Sri-Lanka game, although they lost by 12 runs on the DLS method.

He says they were unlucky to be on the wrong side of the elements on the day.

"I think there's a lot of positives we can take from that game. I thought we were in a really strong position with the ball going into the break of the first innings, and coming out with the bat - we were in control of the chase, but unfortunately the rain flipped the game around a bit, but even that was really good for us because it put us in a situation we might face in the World Cup."

With the results not going their way against both India and Sri-Lanka, Bulbulia says they’ve learnt just how different international cricket can be from school cricket.