Ken Borland

Temba Bavuma can complain with righteous indignation over the misfortune that saw him miss the entire Test series against the West Indies, but he can have no complaints over the quality of preparation his T20 side will be getting against a home team packed with giants of the shortened version of the game.

The five-match T20 series starts at St George’s in Grenada on Saturday and the West Indies have T20 legends Kieron Pollard, Chris Gayle, Andre Russell and Dwayne Bravo in their squad. It will be a daunting challenge for Bavuma, who will actually lead his team out on to the field for the first time in a T20, having missed the series against Pakistan due to injury.

That bad luck with injuries followed him to the Caribbean, where he was on the sidelines of the memorable Test triumph due to first a hip problem and then a dislocated finger while training for the second Test. So Bavuma will certainly be eager for the contest.

“As a team we’ve had various discussions on the type of cricket we want to play and now we have a chance to test that against a very strong outfit, the West Indies obviously being one of the favourites for the World Cup later this year. We get the chance to test our skills against their’s and that should give us a clearer picture of what needs to be done.

“It’s going to be a good measure, it will show us where our standard is in our game. We don’t have confirmation yet of where the World Cup will be played, so we are just looking at the challenge against the West Indies now. We want to play our best cricket in these conditions and they might just happen to be similar to what is found on the subcontinent,” Bavuma said on Friday.

Half-a-dozen of the players who no doubt quaffed some celebratory drinks following their leading roles in the Test series triumph are likely to play in the first T20, while Bavuma and spinners Tabraiz Shamsi and George Linde were also part of the Test squad. So there is plenty of feel-good continuity in the Proteas camp.

“The Tests went exceptionally well and the outcome of that was momentum and confidence. Although this is a different format, quite a few of the players were involved in the Tests. It’s only natural that we want to continue as is, carrying the same language through, with most of the guys being the same. The discussions Dean Elgar and I have had about how to take the team forward obviously bore fruit.

“We’ll only finalise our plans after practice today because it has been raining and the weather is a bit of a concern. We haven’t had an opportunity yet to look at the pitch, but it’s fantastic we’ve got options when it comes down to spin, all-rounders or bolstering the batting,” Bavuma said.

Temba Bavuma is recovering well from his dislocated finger and is expected to be in charge of the Proteas team for their T20 series against the West Indies that begins on Saturday, with all-rounder Wiaan Mulder and left-arm quick Beuran Hendricks also called into the squad after being in the Caribbean for the Test series.

Bavuma missed the two Tests in St Lucia after first suffering a hip injury and then dislocating his finger during training ahead of the second Test. But team management released a statement on Thursday saying he is “responding well to his middle finger dislocation rehabilitation and is expected to lead the team in the upcoming T20 series”. Bavuma has been lined up by the Proteas to do the traditional captain’s press conference on Friday on the eve of the game.

Mulder, who impressed with the ball and with some outstanding catching behind the wicket in the Tests, has remained in the West Indies as a replacement for Dwaine Pretorius, who unfortunately had to stay behind in South Africa after testing positive for Covid-19, but is asymptomatic. Swing bowler Hendricks has been added to the squad as extra pace cover.

The absence of Pretorius could be a lifeline for Andile Phehlukwayo, whose rather unkempt bowling of late has seen him concede 9.85 runs-per-over in T20 internationals since the start of last year, while he has also scored just 54 runs off 46 balls in nine innings in the same period of time.

South Africa’s four frontline bowlers are likely to be Tabraiz Shamsi, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi, with George Linde favoured as a spin-bowling all-rounder. That leaves the Proteas with a choice between playing another all-rounder at number six or another specialist batsman.

Aiden Markram, who has been a clean striker of the ball lately in T20 internationals, can bowl a couple of overs of tidy off-spin, and South Africa do seem a little reliant on David Miller and, to a lesser extent, Linde to clear the boundary in the closing stages.

Having played on seam-friendly pitches with pace and bounce on the island of St Lucia, the Proteas are likely to find themselves back on a more usual Caribbean pitch that offers some turn, but T20 is all about runs so a true surface is expected, albeit a little slower than the Test wickets.

The West Indies will pose a formidable challenge because they are able to call on all their T20 stars such as Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle and Andre Russell.

Proteas T20 Squad – Temba Bavuma (captain), Quinton de Kock, Bjorn Fortuin, Beuran Hendricks, Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen, George Linde, Sisanda Magala, Janneman Malan, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne, Lizaad Williams.

New Proteas Test captain Dean Elgar certainly seems to have made the sale in terms of getting buy-in from the team for his new approach and he said on Wednesday that the 2-0 series win in the West Indies was a result of the environment in the squad.

The opening batsman’s first outing as the full-time captain ended with South Africa hammering the West Indies, who were one place above them on the ICC rankings, by an innings-and-63-runs and then by 158 runs in the two Tests at St Lucia. It was the Proteas first Test series win away from home since beating newly-crowned world champions New Zealand in March 2017.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve won away from home, so it was a much-needed result and this performance speaks volumes for the environment around the team and the brand of cricket we played. It’s not about me, the players are my biggest asset as captain and I’m here to motivate the squad and the environment. It’s a massive honour to captain this team.

“You can either take the captaincy to your head or to your heart, and I like to think I’ve taken it to my heart. I’ve always been a leader, through school and franchise cricket, and I think I lead from the front. I may be small in stature, but I’m a big guy in terms of standing up. I don’t shy away from that,” Elgar said.

While the fast bowlers were front and centre in setting up the victory, Elgar also had plenty of praise for spinner Keshav Maharaj and the batsmen.

“Rabada, Nortje and Ngidi are a fearsome threesome, they put the fear of God in the batsmen, and they are a machine attack. Each of them is unique, but they complement each other so well, they know their games and they understand different game-plans.

“But Keshav is a massive player for the Proteas, the way he has changed his game and is always willing to learn. He’s huge for the environment and deserves more respect. To take a five-for on a pitch that wasn’t turning is brilliant. The batsmen have struggled of late but in really tough, challenging conditions, it was great to see everyone come in and make a contribution,” Elgar said.

Far from being an environment that alienates anyone, the Proteas camp now has a player-driven culture and everyone has bought into the new captaincy ideas of Dean Elgar, coach Mark Boucher said when asked whether the team looked so happy just because they won the Test series against the West Indies or whether there have been off-field changes that have made a difference.

Boucher said the triumph was the result of “a lot of hard work” off the field and some hard chats the team had sitting around the fire in Pretoria on their pre-tour camp.

“When we sat around the fire in Pretoria, the new captain [Elgar] asked some questions about where we are and where we want to go and there were some tough conversations about the necessity of performing for the Proteas badge again. It’s been quite a tough couple of months for certain guys. But the players are now driving the value system they put on the table in our Skukuza culture camp last year, which is why they’re so happy.

“The team have played really well. We have not won away from home for a long time and the belief taken away from that is important. We asked them to play for each other and we’ve seen that, it was really a team effort and we played the big moments very well.

“The best place to learn is in foreign conditions and we learned a lot of lessons in Pakistan. Different conditions are what develops players. The skills have been executed fairly well and I look forward to seeing how we go when we’re put under pressure because then we can judge whether we are really on track,” Boucher said.

The former captain, Quinton de Kock, was the player of the series for his 237 runs at an average of 118, and far from being angry at his demotion, the wicketkeeper/batsman responded with a flurry of runs and was a breath of fresh air in the changeroom as well.

“Quinny’s been through a tough time of late, not scoring the same amount of runs as he’s used to, but he made such an impact on the whole series. While the other batsmen did well to bat time and force the bowlers to come back for third and fourth spells, Quinny has that x-factor that means he can just take the game away from the opposition.

“I’m very happy that he’s in a very good space and he’s been fantastic off the field, funny and lighthearted. And the way he’s kept wicket has been so good too, he’s been very neat and taken some great catches,” Boucher said.