Ken Borland

In a week’s time, Temba Bavuma will lead the Proteas into battle in the first T20 of a three-match series against India at Thiruvananthapuram, giving him an early opportunity to strike back at all the doubters and prove that his omission from the SA20 squads was a mistake.

National white-ball captain Bavuma failed to muster a bid in three attempts at the auction in Cape Town, despite, or perhaps because of, going in with a reserve price of R850 000.

The shock snub led to practically all the franchise coaches being quizzed about just how the player who will lead South Africa into the T20 World Cup next month had managed to lose out on a spot in the six franchises to play in the SA20 next January.

They seemed as nonplussed as the media.

“Just because you’re a good player in South Africa, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be recognised around the world,” was the telling comment from Durban Super Giants coach Lance Klusener when he was asked about the omission of Bavuma and Proteas all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo.

“I’m sure Temba and Andile feel the same as the other players who weren’t sold. But it was brutal out there and there was a lot of competition.”

MI Cape Town coach, Simon Katich, the former Australian batsman, also put Bavuma’s absence down to competition for places.

“It’s a tough one, but there are plenty of good players who missed out because there was a lot of competition. And there was a lot of overseas competition for certain spots,” Katich said.

While Bavuma has proven his star quality in Test and ODI cricket, his strike-rate of 120.60 in T20 Internationals and 124.67 domestically is considered weak for the format.

But the often bizarre nature of T20 auctions was shown in how the franchises were willing to pay a dear price for Donovan Ferreira, the Northerns batsman who is an almost complete unknown overseas, but managed to fetch R5.5 million from Joburg Super Kings in the first express set of bids towards the end of the auction.

Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming seems a fan though.

“Donovan is relatively young, explosive and dynamic and he can keep wicket as well. I thought it would be a nice, easy buy, but the bidding got my heart beating.

“He was the last key position we needed, our last throw of the dice and we only just got him. Hopefully that effort will pay off for us.

“You usually can get some very good buys at the end and in the end it was a good day for us. The challenge is you set up your budget, but then you get blown out of the water on one of your prizes,” Fleming said.

England have already named their starting XI for the first Test against South Africa at Lord’s on Wednesday, with Ben Foakes taking the wicketkeeper’s gloves from Sam Billings in the only change to the team that beat India last month.

Here are four potential key areas of weakness that the Proteas will be looking to exploit.

Making early inroads

South Africa will want their fearsome pace attack to make early inroads and therefore expose England’s powerful middle-order of Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes when the ball is still new.

Opener Zak Crawley is famous for the 267 he scored against Pakistan in Southampton two years ago, but in his other 45 Test innings he has made only 962 runs at an average of just 21.37. This year he has made just 142 runs in eight innings and, although he is a dashing strokeplayer, his place in the team is precarious. For all his considerable talent, he has a first-class average of just 29.62.

Shopping for top-order stability

England have been shopping for a settled opening combination and even a consistent No.3 for the last decade. Alex Lees is currently Crawley’s partner but he averages just 25.50 in his seven Tests, while Ollie Pope also averages less than 30 in Test cricket, although he has played a couple of brilliant innings this summer.

But England’s batting is on shaky foundations and the Proteas will want to get stuck in with the new ball.

Soft centre?

Apart from the problems at the top of the order, there are question marks lower down too. Wicketkeeper/batsman Ben Foakes is in the centre of the discussion because he comes in at No.7, with a longish tail after him. Foakes has scored just one century and two fifties in his 27 Test innings, averaging 29.19. His ability to marshall Broad, Leach, Potts and Anderson could be central to England’s hopes if things go awry with the batting up top.

An innocuous spinner

There’s no doubt left-arm spinner Jack Leach has tremendous character and he offers great control to the attack, as well as bounce being his greatest weapon due to his six-foot frame. But he is not a big turner of the ball and there is not much mystery to what he does. In comparison to Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer, the Proteas would seem to have a clear edge in the spin-bowling department.

The Proteas may not yet have all the answers for the T20 World Cup starting in Australia in October, but coach Mark Boucher said the 2-2 series draw in India has certainly dealt with many of the questions surrounding the side.

The fifth and decisive T20 was washed out at the weekend, and although there was disappointment that South Africa lost the previous two games and therefore failed to wrap up the series win, Boucher said he was satisfied with the overall result.

“It’s always tough coming here to play India. I know a lot of top players were not here, but the depth they have, largely due to the IPL, is really good. On the back of the IPL, those players were in good form and had been playing on these pitches,” Boucher said.

“I will take 2-2, even though we did not play our best cricket. But we asked a few questions in this series and we got a lot of answers. Our plans will probably change a bit in Australia, but we take confidence from this series.

“We had two good games and two bad games, and there were reasons for that. We tried a few options in these conditions, and there were periods we played really well and periods when there was lots to learn,” Boucher said.

The powerplay was the main area of concern for Boucher, the coach admitting that India had bossed the crucial first six overs of the innings, with both bat and ball. But the absence of Aiden Markram, who missed the entire series due to a positive Covid test, was the most disruptive blow to their plans.

“It was tough to lose Aiden before we even started. That put us under pressure because we wanted to play six batsmen with Aiden as our sixth bowling option. That was a massive loss to our batting up front,” Boucher said.

“The batting up front was probably the biggest thing to think about. We struggled to get going with the bat. We speak about it every game, the importance of intent. It’s about how we change the mindset. In the third game especially we did not show enough intent up front.

“The bowling was very good at stages, but at other times we looked a bit rusty. And our batsmen were up against quality bowling, I thought Bhuvneshwar Kumar was special the whole series, he really put us under pressure in the powerplay.

“In fact, India dominated us in the powerplay with both bat and ball,” Boucher said.

The mother of all monsoon storms hit Bengaluru on Sunday night, washing out the fifth and final T20 between India and South Africa, and forcing the two teams to share the series at 2-2.

South Africa had once again won the toss and elected to bowl, with stand-in skipper Keshav Maharaj (Temba Bavuma having not recovered from his elbow injury) being belted for two sixes in the first over by Ishan Kishan.

But Lungi Ngidi then produced two excellent slower balls to remove the two Indian openers, Kishan (15) and Ruturaj Gaikwad (10), to leave the home side struggling on 28 for two midway through the fourth over.

With the Proteas having taken an early hold on the game, but with India enjoying the momentum of winning the previous two matches, it was difficult to know who felt more relieved by the intervention of the rain.

South Africa had made three changes to their team, modifying the balance of their side to bolster the batting, but leaving themselves with just five frontline bowlers. Reeza Hendricks was going to replace Bavuma at the top of the order, while Tristan Stubbs came in for Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada returned from a groin niggle to replace Tabraiz Shamsi, leaving Maharaj as the sole spinner.

Spare a thought for Stubbs, who has now earned two T20 International caps but did not get to bat in either of the matches.

Ngidi first fooled Kishan with a wonderful, dipping slower yorker, bowling him with the last delivery of the second over.

Gaikwad fell to the penultimate delivery of the match, trying to hit Ngidi down the ground but the lack of pace meant he only made contact with the bottom of the bat, spooning a catch to Dwaine Pretorius at deep mid-on.

Ngidi finished with fine figures of two for six in 1.3 overs.

With the T20 World Cup set to start in Australia in October, at the moment the Proteas only have five more T20s scheduled before then – a trio of matches in England in July and then two games versus Ireland in August.