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Following another strong domestic season with the Knights, Keegan Petersen's move to the Dolphins was carefully thought out as he hopes to take his career to the next level with a consistent spot in the national set-up the ultimate goal.
Petersen earned a call-up to the Proteas squad during their recent test series against England but didn't earn a cap. He felt that he could have dealt with that call up better when he returned to franchise cricket.
"I think I might have put too much pressure on myself after I got the call up to the national squad," Petersen said candidly. "I thought that I needed to justify the call up and that's why the second half of the season didn't go as well for me.
"With the season over it was time for me to move on and the Dolphins was a good fit for me as I have admired the kind of cricket that they played last season."
The brand of cricket that the Dolphins have instilled in the franchise was appealing for Petersen along with a number of other factors that he feels will help him improve and push for another national call up.
"I watched a lot of Dolphins cricket last season and I think they are playing the cricket that the rest of the franchises are trying to," he mentioned. "Their approach with the bat and their emphasis on spin with the ball is the way cricket is going.
"To also have a test venue as my home ground was important and the decision was purely a cricketing one."
The move for the 26 year-old has also been influenced by the Dolphins' reliance on spin bowling, one of the areas that Petersen wants to continue to improve on.
With the likes of Keshav Maharaj, Prenelan Subrayen and Senuran Muthusamy to contend with at training he has some of the best in the country to face regularly.
"I think that I am pretty good at playing spin bowling but it is always an area that you can improve so it's going to be a good test for me," he said.
"Another area that I want to improve on is consistency. I want to maintain good form for a long period because I know that another call-up to the Proteas squad isn't going to come easily."
Although Petersen's national call-up came in the test squad he doesn't want to pigeonhole himself.
"I'm not going to forget about one day cricket at all and I think it's important to be consistent in both formats of the game," he said.
"We saw how well the Dolphins batted in the One Day Cup and it's encouraging to see how positively they went about their batting."
