“I am going to be very honest with you, and I am going to put it up straight up front — we have choked in the past and we know about it,” de Villiers told reporters in Colombo.

“We have had some really bad experiences in the past. But I emphasis the word ‘past’. We have come with a new look in this team and we have worked hard with our new management team that has given us a lot of energy and new ideas,” he added.