It’s been a long and sometimes potholed road for Temba Bavuma, but the Proteas vice-captain will play his 49th Test in the second match against New Zealand and he says he now feels fully valued and accepted as a leader in the team.
Bavuma made his Test debut way back in 2014, in the Boxing Day match against the West Indies at St George’s Park, which was ruined by rain. Six matches later, his maiden Test century, against England at Newlands, was historic and one of the most memorable moments in South African cricket after the return from isolation.
But as with most of his team-mates, 2019 was an annus horribilis for Bavuma as he only averaged 19.84 in 13 innings. He was dropped and has come back stronger, averaging 46.16 since then.
“I have more peace about how I fit in now, my role in the team,” Bavuma said. “Every game does not feel like my last opportunity now. My role is not just about the runs but my presence, how I contribute to building the culture and environment.
“It has helped me to be more at ease. It’s also helped that I’ve played a fair number of games now and I’ve learnt to accept that there will be good and bad days. If it’s a bad day, then you need to have perspective.
“They don’t define who we are, although we take the lessons from them. Technically, I’ve just tinkered here and there, but I’ve not done much apart from trying to be as still as I can be when the ball is delivered.
“It’s more about the mental processes. But the main thing you want when you come in as a young debutant is to be accepted as part of the team, that’s the main way you perform. And I truly believe that I am accepted and valued in terms of my input, and I think that’s why I have had good performances over the last little while,” Bavuma said.
The 31-year-old Bavuma is a sucker for honest leadership, being that kind of skipper himself with the Proteas white-ball teams or the Central Gauteng Lions. Which is why he has dovetailed so well with Test captain Dean Elgar.
“Dean and I have played alongside each other for quite a while, ever since playing for SA A in 2012/13,” Bavuma said. “The relationship has always been built on honesty, there’s no bullshit with Dean.
“He can be very blunt, he will call you out if you need it, but if you’ve done good then he lets you know as well. His character resonates with me and he wants the same sort of feedback from me.
“As his vice-captain, I try to be a calming voice because he can be quite emotional. But I understand his vision and I back it 100%, and I also back him as a leader and player.
“His success is my success and vice-versa, and we both just want to bring back the respect for the Proteas badge and leave the team in a much better state,” Bavuma said.
The Proteas may have spent the last couple of days off the field in reflection, but Test vice-captain Temba Bavuma said there was no shelter from the honest, harsh discussions they needed to have in the wake of their humiliating innings-and-276-run defeat at the hands of New Zealand in the first Test in Christchurch.
With the second Test against the reigning world champions starting at the same venue at midnight on Thursday evening South African time, the Proteas need to produce a drastically improved showing after their awful batting, bowling and fielding in the first match.
“We had conversations as a team and they were mostly around honesty surrounding our performance,” Bavuma said on Tuesday. “Losing like that in practically a two-day Test match is not good enough.
“We did not produce the standards we pride ourselves on in all three disciplines. We are all very disappointed and we know we have to improve.
“Yes, our energies were down in the first Test, but that’s no excuse. We have to make sure we’re in a better mental and physical state to compete this week.
“And it starts with being honest. The performance was simply not good enough,” Bavuma said.
Although it may seem like the Proteas are buried under an avalanche of soft dismissals, poor deliveries and dropped catches, Bavuma is still confident they can dig themselves out of their predicament and still level the two-match series, maintaining their proud record of having never lost a series to New Zealand.
“We’ve had to remind the guys that over the last while we have overcome a lot and this is not a foreign situation. We know how to come back when our backs are against the wall,” Bavuma said.
“We do have the character and we can take confidence from how we have performed over the last while, as a team we can take a lot of positives from how we have fought before.
“Last week is now gone and it’s important how we come back. We are preparing as best we can to put our best foot forward.
“The sun has come out and the Hagley Oval pitch should be a bit more pleasant to bat on. We expect conditions to be a bit different,” Bavuma said.
If Temba Bavuma received any advice from his predecessors as Proteas captain it was probably to beware of the suits and the victorious skipper said after their amazing ODI series whitewash of India that one of the hardest parts of his job has been managing the off-field distractions.
The Cricket South Africa board’s antipathy towards their players came to a head on the eve of the ODI series when they charged head coach Mark Boucher with gross misconduct, due to allegations made by the flawed Social Justice and Nation-Building report that more than 20 years ago the record-breaking wicketkeeper sang a team song that contained racial slurs.
This after the Proteas had pulled off a remarkable Test series win over India, knocking them off the No.1 ranking. The tremendous fight the team has been showing, and their clear growth in terms of skills and composure, make it clear that it must be a happy changeroom and a healthy environment. Which is now seemingly under attack from their own board.
“It has not been easy, to be honest,” Bavuma said after completing the 3-0 win with a thrilling four-run win at Newlands. “There have been a lot of dynamics that need to be managed.
“The big thing is to try and keep the cricket as the main focus. It’s been a really challenging time for the players and management, because we’ve been under a lot of scrutiny.
“So I’ve had to manage the conversations we’re having and ensure that our energies are 100% towards performance. It’s been a challenge, but a privilege as well, and I’ve enjoyed it,” Bavuma said.
A dominant batting display by the Proteas, who for so long struggled in that department, saw Bavuma call his fellow batsmen a “revelation”.
“The batting unit has really been a revelation for us. Before we were scoring fifties and sixties and then finding a way to get out. But the coach gave us a challenge to start making hundreds.
“We scored three of them and we now have five guys averaging more than 40 in ODIs, which gives us a lot of confidence. It’s a formidable batting line-up,” Bavuma said.
Apart from topping the Test series averages (73.66), Bavuma also averaged 51 in the ODIs. Clearly the captaincy has agreed with him.
“It seems to have had a knock-on effect in my own performance. I enjoy the thinking side, the tactical side, and maybe that has made me a bit more clearer on what I want to do.
“I’m always thinking about the situations, how to counter, and maybe that’s why my form came back. For me, it means a lot to look back on the series and I know I contributed significantly.
“It makes it even better and to convincingly beat an Indian team of that calibre and pedigree speaks a lot to my captaincy.
“It’s still early days in my captaincy career though, I’ll take the acknowledgement but I definitely won’t get ahead of myself,” Bavuma said.
Rassie van der Dussen pulls stylishly at the Wanderers. – Photo by Marcel Sigg
Temba Bavuma has made a tremendous start to his tenure as South Africa’s white-ball captain, and Keshav Maharaj was also excellent when standing in for him, but it is heartening to know that if they are unfortunately unavailable for any reason, there is another calm, deep-thinking leader in the team who could do the job with aplomb.
Rassie van der Dussen has cemented his place in the limited-overs teams in spectacular fashion and his heroics in the recently-completed ODI whitewash of India leave him with 1267 runs in 26 innings in the 50-over format, at the extraordinary average of 74.52.
The second oldest of four sports-mad brothers, Van der Dussen was first touted as leadership material during the horrors of the 2019 World Cup in England. Amidst a chaotic campaign, the Pretoria product impressed with his cool head and clear thinking, as well as the three half-centuries he scored in six innings, finishing the tournament with an average of 62.
That same composure and ability to adapt to any situation was clearly evident during the memorable Test and ODI series wins over India. There were times Van der Dussen had to dig in defiantly; on other occasions he turned the momentum through positive strokeplay and no little skill.
“The Test series was definitely the toughest conditions I’ve ever had to bat in and it was high pressure with the Indian bowlers just never letting you go,” Van der Dussen told Saturday Citizen.
“Every session seemed to be more important than the last, every moment things could swing the other way. It was extremely mentally testing. But being mentally strong is something I pride myself on.
“Under pressure I need to be level-headed and to analyse the situation objectively. Throughout my career I’ve believed that I can manage the chase, absorb the pressure when the opposition is bowling well.
“I pride myself on performing in the big moments and matches. It maybe comes from playing club cricket in Pretoria from a young age, playing against men. There was often verbal abuse and you had to deal with it,” Van der Dussen said in typically stoic fashion.
The 32-year-old currently has the highest average in ODI history of all batsmen who have played at least 20 innings and when one looks at some of the other superstars near the top of that list – Virat Kohli (58.77), Babar Azam (56.92), Michael Bevan (53.58) and AB de Villiers (53.50) – one thing characterises them all. They are all expert players of the situation, whether it called for consolidation or acceleration.
Many other just as talented batsmen ended with inferior records because they would only play in one way, arguing that that was their “natural game”.
“A batsman can be labelled with that – ‘that’s just the way he plays,’ people will say. But it can also be a cop-out,” Van der Dussen said.
“Whenever I bat, I try to change the match and there is always a certain amount of responsibility you have to accept. It’s about reading the match situation and working out what is needed.
“That’s always my thing: to put the team in a good position to win the game. At the Wanderers Test, I knew Dean and I had to be in overnight, the runs did not matter at the end of the third day. But then we were able to start well the next day.”
The way Van der Dussen stayed calm and clear-headed under immense pressure from India was in stark contrast to visiting wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, a great talent who twice got out for ducks at crucial times on tour due to wild forays down the pitch to try and slog the bowler.
Van der Dussen admits he did have a few words with Pant, who ‘caught’ him in the first innings of the Wanderers Test when the ball had clearly bounced, but the phlegmatic Central Gauteng Lions star did raise the bar above petty sledging.
“I like to think I’m a deep thinker and I just asked Pant a few questions, nothing attacking him personally, but I guess they did not sit well with him. I suppose it made him think differently.
“But the Wanderers incident was a massive moment because chasing 280-300 would possibly have been too much for us and he’s a young and exciting player. We did speak about making sure that was a moment India would really regret and capitalising on it,” Van der Dussen said.
It will surprise no-one that someone as pragmatic as Van der Dussen already has a plan for life after cricket and has gone into business with his agent and close friend Chris Cardoso.
“I’m really enjoying delving into the business side and we now have three coffee shops – called Abantu Coffee – in the Centurion area. Our aim is to make good coffee and create as many jobs as we can.
“I really want to scale up my involvement in it and I enjoy being hands-on in the business,” Van der Dussen said.
Something else that the Menlo Park High School and Affies alma mater enjoys immensely, along with wife Lara, is the bush and especially birdwatching.
Even in that hobby, Van der Dussen is trying to make a change for good with his support of the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project, along with Cardoso.
“I go to Mabula about twice a year, Chris owns a unit in Mabula and through our conservation fund African FRDM x Environment we are helping them with the great work they do in trying to secure a good future for these endangered birds.
“We’ve helped them with new tyres and in trying to build suitable nest boxes that are strong enough for these massive birds and their huge beaks.
“I’ve loved the bush from early on because my grandfather had a farm with game and cattle at Springbokvlakte between Modimolle and Marble Hall. Growing up amongst animals I learnt things like tracking.
“Which got me into birdwatching because of the thrill of the chase, you hear the call and you want to track the bird down and see it. For Lara and I, seeing a rare bird gives us the same feeling as seeing a lion or a leopard,” Van der Dussen said.
But for now, dreams of spending more time in the bush have had to take a back seat because Van der Dussen is spotting both the red and the white ball extremely well at the moment.
