New Delhi: In December 2015, Temba Bavuma was a new man in the South African side, still trying to find his feet at the highest level. He was facing a rampaging Virat Kohli-led India on a surface that favoured their spinners. Having lost two games in the four-test series with the second match washed by rain, the Proteas tried Bavuma at an unfamiliar position in the final Test at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla.
Facing a daunting chase of 481 runs and the challenge to survive more than five sessions, the Hashim Amla-led side embarked on a blockathon, and Bavuma, the opener, was the first to kick the proceedings off as the Proteas went on to bat for 143 overs.
“That was the toughest piece of batting I’ve had to do in my life. I always try to be positive but with the runs not being the priority, time was the key and that was tough for me,” Bavuma had said then. “The toughest part is when I have to [go] against my natural instinct, which is to score runs. Here, the main thing is time. It’s not the runs and batting time is quite tough.”
South Africa lost the game as Kohli won his first series at home, beginning a dominant chapter for Indian cricket during which the template against South Africa continued to be successfully deployed against all touring sides for nearly a decade.
Few would have predicted then that the Black cricketer would go on to captain the side—it just hadn’t happened before.
A decade later, Bavuma has led the Proteas to flip the script on the men in blue at home, as his side outplayed India across all departments of the game, bringing about a total collapse of their empire in the longest format. And that is why Temba Bavuma is ThePrint’s Mewsmaker of the Week.
Always a bulwark
When Kyle Verreynne smashed Mitchell Starc through covers at the Lord’s earlier this year, the Proteas were elated. All wanted to rejoice in the win, secured at the back of defeating the firm favourites in Australia on the biggest stage—the final of the World Test Championship.
Bavuma was a little different, though. He sat calmly, and only after a few moments started clapping as the joy of victory trickled in. At that stage, he looked like a different man, in complete contrast to his teammates.
But it was his hamstrung leg that provided a solid base to the Proteas as they clinched their first global title, chasing 281 runs set by the world-beating side of Pat Cummins.
He had injured his hamstring very early in his innings, and the jury was out on whether he should have walked off, letting fit batters take centre stage. However, he decided to stick around and play second fiddle to Aiden Markram.
The decision to continue batting was contentious. Bavuma would not have been blamed had he walked out due to injury; instead, the decision to remain batting would have come back to haunt his reputation—if the game had not ended in South Africa’s favour.
Bavuma kept limping to more than 100 balls and departed only after taking the Proteas to well within reach of the target.
When asked whose decision it was to continue batting, the entire Proteas team management was in unison. Bavuma himself had made the call.
“To be honest, a lot of it came from him. He’s led us from the front for the last two to three years. He didn’t want to walk off the field yesterday, found a way to score crucial runs, played an innings that a lot of people will remember,” Markram said minutes after South Africa won the game.
Bavuma, whose race was never a factor in his ascendency to the Test leadership, was in fact the first Black man to lead South Africa in Tests. He faced significant criticism for his failures in the white-ball formats—and justifiably so. But the man Indian cricketers mocked for his height has taken South Africa to new heights in the longest format.
How fitting was it for him to be the main rock of the Proteas’ batting when he remained defiant on a tricky track at the Eden Gardens to set India a target of 124 runs that eventually proved to be too many.
He had buried the ghosts of Delhi 2015, first in Kolkata and then in Guwahati, when Marco Jansen pulled out a screamer to complete India’s annihilation.
Also read: Gaali cricket: Bavuma stands tall, India’s Test ego cut to size
Not afraid of taking unpopular calls
Even as the Proteas were bundled out for a mere 138 runs by Cummins-led Australia, right-hander David Bedingham stood like a rock on the Lord’s surface that provided plenty of assistance to Australia’s all-star seam bowling group. He played with tight defence and looked apart from his teammates, who could not really come to terms with the angles and seam movement. Bavuma was the second-highest run scorer with 36, compared to Bedingham’s 45. He remained not out to take the side home.
Months later, when South Africa announced their squad for the tour of India, it dropped a bombshell.
Bedingham was dropped. Bavuma, who had missed the action for months due to his hamstring injury, was the man stepping in for him. Bedingham was not asked to play in any of the Tests against Pakistan.
But the omission was not left unexplained, which otherwise might have affected the self-belief of a young man coming on to the scene.
Instead, the leadership group was sure of what they were doing and the coach, Shukri Conrad, explained in great detail the rationale behind the move.
“It doesn’t mean that it’s the end of the road for David. It wasn’t so long ago that he was one of our star performers at Lord’s, so really, horses-for-courses. For what we’re potentially going to face, I believe the guys that we got are ahead of David in that respect,” Conrad said before the India tour.
One can point out various on-field calls and tactics that went on to define South Africa’s win over India: its spinners outbowled their Indian counterparts in nuances of spin bowling and its batters countered spin better than Indian spinners. But the clarity of thought in not selecting Bedingham and instead preferring Tony de Zorzi, who batted with immense solidity, also shows Bavuma’s leadership acumen.
Compare and contrast this approach with India’s handling of Sarfaraz Khan, who has never been trusted with the bat. His exclusion came with no public explanation, even in the face of swirling rumours that could potentially bring his career to a premature end.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)