Last Updated on 2 years by Charbel Coorey
Cricket News: Does Temba Bavuma fit in South Africa’s best T20I XI? | Is there room for Temba Bavuma in South Africa’s best T20I team?
South Africa cruised to an incredible T20I series victory against England at Southampton on Sunday. 0-1 down after the first game, the Proteas staged a terrific comeback to seal the series against their highly fancied opponents.
Inspired performances from Reeza Hendricks, Rilee Rossouw, Tristan Stubbs, and Aiden Markram have given the Proteas a problem of plenty in the run-up to the World T20 in Australia. An elbow injury to Temba Bavuma ruled the skipper out of this all-format tour to England. However, the side looked undeterred with his absence.
David Miller filled in ably as the captain and the team is visibly beaming with some terrific talent and potential to make up for Bavuma’s unavailability. Instead, it appears to have taken the water off their back given the continuous doubts over the captain’s suitability to the T20 format.
Where does Temba Bavuma fit in South Africa’s best T20I XI?
Bavuma took over as the limited-overs skipper amidst a leadership reshuffle in March 2021. However, it wasn’t as if he was a regular starter in T20Is prior to that. He featured in merely eight of the 19 T20Is that South Africa played between his debut in the format and his first game as a skipper in the same. Overall, he has played 25 of the 42 T20Is that the Proteas have featured in since his debut against India at Mohali in September 2019.
In fact, he was handed the T20 cap close to five years after his inaugural appearance for South Africa in Test cricket in December 2014. Bavuma has an average and strike rate of 26.76 and 120.60 in 24 T20Is. Five batsmen, namely: Quinton de Kock (993), Rassie van der Dussen (777), Reeza Hendricks (697), Aiden Markram (621), and David Miller (621) have scored more T20I runs for South Africa than (562) since his debut in the format.
All of them have done so with a comparatively better average, scoring rate, and with a greater number of boundaries. That is despite the fact that Bavuma has opened or batted at number three in 22 out of his 24 T20I innings so far, giving him a better opportunity to exploit the field restriction overs.
Bavuma’s average betters to 30.52 but his strike rate only stands at 124.67 even if one considers a larger sample size of his 100-match-long T20 career. Now, these are respectable numbers by all means but arguably inferior to other competitors looking to get a foot in the South African T20I XI.
A look at the key players to feature in South Africa’s best XI
De Kock is a sure-shot starter in all circumstances and Hendricks returned with figures of 57, 53, and 70 as an opener in the last three T20Is vs England.
Rossouw put up an enthralling show of 96 runs off 55 deliveries in the second game and backed it up with a quickfire 31 in the final T20I. Markram re-asserted his prolificity with an authoritative 56 in the third game and Tristan Stubbs’ breath-taking 72 off 28 deliveries in the second T20I will definitely give him a longer run in the playing XI.
South Africa did not require any significant contributions from Miller and de Kock to win this series and that is a proper testament to their solid bench strength in the T20 format. Amidst all this, star batsman Rassie van der Dussen did not even feature in any of the three T20Is!
Where does this leave Temba Bavuma in South Africa’s mix of things for the T20 World Cup? Does he get a look-in primarily because of his captaincy credentials? Or, will the selectors opt for a final shake-up in order to realise their ICC tournament ambitions?
A clear picture will emerge as the team heads closer to the World T20 in the coming couple of months.
Stats courtesy of Howstat & ESPNCricinfo
