Bavuma leaves big hole

What Temba Bavuma has lost, Aiden Markram has probably gained.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

TEMBA Bavuma has become such an important and integral figure in all of South Africa’s teams that it will take five players to replace him on the all-format tour to England from July to September. Bavuma has been ruled out for a projected eight weeks by an elbow injury he sustained diving to make his ground while batting in a T20I in Rajkot earlier this month. Cue not panic, but a careful plan to accommodate his absence.

Aiden Markram could have Bavuma’s fate to thank for his retention in the Test squad. Markram last passed 50 in the format 13 innings ago against West Indies in St Lucia in June last year. In his dozen trips to the Test crease since then, he scored 153 runs at 12.75. In the same number of innings in this year’s IPL, Markram made 381 runs — almost two-and-a-half times as many as in his lean Test spell — for Sunrisers Hyderabad. So his form and confidence would seem restored, albeit in a scenario utterly different to Test batting. His selection for the T20I series in India, which came to nought because he contracted Covid-19 and did not play, was a nod in that direction. Still, he might not have done enough to keep his Test place.

Khaya Zondo is another possible Bavuma beneficiary in the Test squad. He made his debut as a Covid substitute for Sarel Erwee against Bangladesh at St George’s Park in April, but did not get the chance to bat. Zondo scored two half-centuries and an undefeated 203 in nine domestic first-class innings last season.

Reeza Hendricks is the most likely heir to Bavuma’s spot in the ODI squad. In 24 innings as a top order batter in the format, Hendricks has scored a century — 102 on debut against Sri Lanka in Pallekele in August 2018 — and three 50s. Those are not the numbers of a first-choice player, and the 27 he made in two innings during this month’s T20I series in India would not have helped his cause.

Has Bavuma’s injury made space for Rilee Rossouw in the T20I squad? Rossouw, who will turn 33 in October, hasn’t played for South Africa since October 2016 and seemed to end his international career when he signed a Kolpak with Hampshire in January 2017. But the Kolpak era ended in December 2020, and Rossouw was the leading scorer by more than a hundred runs in last summer’s provincial T20 tournament. He is currently enjoying a barnstorming campaign for Somerset in the T20 Blast, where he is third among the runscorers and has the second-highest strike rate among players who have had at least 10 innings: 191.53.

Bavuma also needs replacing as South Africa’s captain in the white-ball formats. Keshav Maharaj, who will take over the ODI side in England, has led the side in three ODIs and four T20Is — most recently in Bangalore on June 19 after Bavuma was taken out of the mix in the last match of the rubber. Miller captained South Africa in the last two games of a T20I series against Pakistan in February 2019, when Faf du Plessis was rested.

Bavuma’s latest calamity is on a long list of assorted injuries. He has missed 11 of South Africa’s 41 white-ball matches since his appointment as captain in March last year. The 2022 T20I World Cup in Australia in October and November is now his target for a return to action.

South Africa will miss Bavuma will be missed in England as much for his uncompromising batting and razorsharp fielding as for his cool, calm leadership. He is, in every sense, a tough act to follow.

First published by Cricbuzz.