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.

Temba Bavuma already missed the T20 series against Pakistan this year through injury and now the middle-order batsman might be forced to take a short sabbatical from Test cricket as well, with Proteas captain Dean Elgar confirming on Wednesday that his vice-captain is in doubt for the first Test against the West Indies which starts at St Lucia on Thursday.

Bavuma strained his hamstring in the last ODI against Pakistan in early April and had to miss the four T20s that followed, but his current injury is a problem with his left hip.

“Temba is a bit of a concern, yesterday was a big day when he pushed his body and today he’ll have to go and prove his fitness,” Elgar said on Wednesday morning in the Caribbean. “We’re obviously banking on him being fit, but Kyle Verreynne is definitely in position to take his place, he’s best suited to No.5, which is where Temba would slot in, he’s accustomed to that.

“That means we’ll possibly have two guys making their debut [Keegan Petersen is set to replace the retired Faf du Plessis], but we don’t have other options really. All our back-up batsmen haven’t played Test cricket yet. But it’s not bad to have young guys coming in, they’re very hungry. I’m sure Kyle will be champing at the bit if Temba is not fit,” Elgar added.

Conditions at St Lucia at this time of year would seem to be very different to what South African teams have previously encountered in the West Indies, but Elgar said they had garnered plenty of info from a two-day practice game they played that turned into a pretty intense contest.

“We’ve been thrown into the deep end a lot recently, but we played a two-day game and it was two tough days of cricket. The first day was very tough batting conditions, playing on a side-pitch with a slope, it was overcast and we’re using the Dukes ball we’re not so used to. And then the second day was an extremely competitive battle between bat and ball.

“Historically this is a very seam-friendly pitch, but if you apply yourself as a batsman you can get in and score runs. We are aware of our limitations and failures, but preparation is one thing we can control, although it is no guarantee of success. We’ve lost a lot of experience in the batting, but it’s time for guys to put their hands up, there are opportunities there now,” Elgar said.

Heinrich Klaasen called himself an “unexpected” captain on Friday and stressed that he will be sticking very closely to Temba Bavuma’s plan when the Proteas’ T20 series against Pakistan starts on Saturday afternoon at the Wanderers.

With Bavuma ruled out of action for the entire series with a hamstring strain suffered in the final ODI in midweek, Klaasen was on Friday morning once again thrust into the stand-in captain role he fulfilled in the three T20s in Pakistan in February. But the 29-year-old was clear that he will not be trying to stamp his mark on the team, however subtly; Bavuma’s astute game-plan will be the one they will be using.

“We have a set plan for how we want to play, we are still fine-tuning it and the new guys in the squad need to play that way in order to fit in. But it’s the way we’ll be playing going forward, the way Temba wants it, and I will definitely be pushing that going forward. It’s just a positive brand of cricket, with a bit of streetwise play thrown in. I can’t really expand on the rest of it.

“But it’s the way the game is heading and we need to keep up with the new style of play. There’s a process we need to follow. It was unexpected to be given the captaincy, but a big honour again. It’s unfortunate we don’t have some big players again, but this is still a very strong side and the players have lots of confidence in this format,” Klaasen said on Friday.

Klaasen will obviously fill one of the middle-order slots, but the job of wicketkeeper could go to Kyle Verreynne. The stand-in captain said the brilliance of the youngster in the third ODI showed that he could “play for South Africa for a very long time”.

Janneman Malan was praised in the same vein by Klaasen and the departures of Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks and Bavuma himself from the squad means the recruitment of a new opening partner for the Cobras talent is necessary. Aiden Markram has been added to the T20 squad as cover, but could the selectors go the less-obvious route and introduce debutant Wihan Lubbe at the top of the order?

The 28-year-old took on the might of the Imperial Lions attack in the recent T20 Challenge and showed he fits the bill as an opener with a great knock of 52 off just 38 balls.

The fitness of the exciting Sisanda Magala, a star of the Lions’ triumphant T20 campaign, is apparently still an issue for the Proteas management, but the introduction to international cricket of him or Lizaad Williams of the Titans is a possibility.