The Next Big Thing: Is it finally Temba Bavuma's time for South Africa?
Wednesday 22 April 2020 13:56, UK
Who are cricket's emerging talents? Every Wednesday, we will focus on 'the next big thing' in the sport and this week it's South Africa batsman Temba Bavuma...
Temba Bavuma; long touted as 'the next big thing' of South African cricket, he is set to celebrate his 30th birthday on May 17.
'Next big thing' no more, surely?
It would seem so. Bavuma has failed to truly grasp numerous chances in the South African set up since making his Test debut in late 2014.
There had been hope it had clicked for him when he scored a fine maiden Test ton against England in Cape Town to start 2016. Bavuma struck 16 boundaries in a hugely entertaining knock at No 6 in the order; his unbeaten 102 took just 148 balls, albeit on a desperately flat batting track that had earlier seen Ben Stokes smash the record-fastest 250 in Test cricket.
The occasion took on even greater significance. Bavuma, who grew up in Langa, a township outside Cape Town, was the first black African batsman to play Test cricket for South Africa and, as such, the first to score a century.
"What a moment it was for him; what a moment it was for South Africa," said Sky Sports' Nasser Hussain at the time.
"They have had this quote system for quite some time now - and there is a lot of talk about it, and about this young man - but make no mistake, that was a wonderful, brilliant hundred.
"It was the first hundred by a black South African, at a ground where he'd have grown up watching cricket - he came from a township down the road.
"To have Bavuma and [Kagiso] Rabada walk off together at the end was a fabulous sight, for not only South African cricket fans but all of South Africa."
South Africa have enforced a 'quota target' since being reinstated by the International Cricket Council as a Test nation in 1991, following a 21-year ban due to apartheid.
The target stipulates the Proteas should 'select six players of colour in each squad, two of whom should be black African'.
Rabada, a black African bowler of immense skill was appearing in just his fifth Test, and Bavuma his seventh. Their success in that series - Rabada, aged 20, would take 13 England wickets in the Test win at Centurion a week later - was significant. They were South Africa's great hopes for the future.
While Rabada's career has soared on an upward trajectory ever since, Bavuma, in 33 further Tests for South Africa, has failed to taste triple-figure success again and has reached fifty on only 12 occasions.
The closest Bavuma has come again to that magic hundred mark was in March 2018 against a distracted Australia side that had just been stripped of their captain Steve Smith, star batsman David Warner and Cameron Bancroft for their role in the 'ball-tampering scandal'.
South Africa piled on the misery and the runs in the fourth Test at Johannesburg, with Bavuma helping himself to 95 of those. But, as he closed in on a crucial second Test century, Pat Cummins blasted out batsmen 10 and 11 in consecutive deliveries to leave him short, stranded.
Bavuma, at the time, was in the midst of a purple patch (of sorts) with the bat and was again threatening to break through and deliver on his long-hyped potential.
In the period between March 8, 2017 and January 11, 2019, Bavuma scored nine of his 13 Test fifties while appearing in 16 matches for South Africa. Converting those scores was still a problem, but his average was a more than respectable 40.37 across that two-year period.
The problem lies outside of that range, with his solitary Test ton and just four fifties spanning his remaining 24 Test caps for South Africa. And it was one such troublesome spell that saw him dropped yet again from the team, as he averaged just 15 with the bat in 2019 following a score of 75 against Pakistan to start the year.
It meant that Bavuma was a notable absentee from the South Africa team to start the 2019/20 Test series against England, particularly with the home side's batting shorn of experience.
It was a line-up that became routinely exposed by England's attack as they headed for a comprehensive 3-1 series defeat and, ultimately, Bavuma was brought back in for the fourth and final Test.
He wasn't South Africa's saviour.
Bavuma scored just six in the first innings before a rampant Mark Wood had him edging to the slips, while he managed a quick-fire 27 second time around, in which 24 of those runs were dealt in boundaries, before Stuart Broad bounced him out.
It was an appearance that suggested Bavuma was more South Africa's past rather than their future. But another chance would come, from an unlikely source.
While Test opportunities came and went with regularity over the last five years, Bavuma was restricted to just two one-day international caps and two T20I caps. Why?
On his ODI debut against Ireland in September 2016, he hit a hundred and was named player of the match. He'd have to wait a year before being picked again, against Bangladesh, and would score a more than acceptable 48.
Bavuma's third ODI cap for South Africa came in the first ODI against England in Cape Town in February, after a gap of more than two years and three months. He'd score 98.
Again a century would elude him, but it should take nothing away from his brilliance. Chasing 259 to beat the world champions, Bavuma came in at No 3 and proceeded to put on a superb 173-run stand for the second wicket with Quinton de Kock, who would register a quite breath-taking century of his own.
Bavuma looked remarkably composed, assured, relaxed at the crease. A far cry from the frantic and frenetic individual lost down the order in the Test arena a week earlier. He seemed liberated from the pressures and expectation, and able to express himself with a greater freedom than the red-ball format often allows.
It became a theme for the following few weeks. Although not quite managing to reach the same heights as at Newlands, Bavuma followed up with scores 21 and 29 in the subsequent ODIs and then impressed further by firing 43, 31 and 49 as an opener in the three-match T20I series.
He formed part of a formidable pairing with De Kock, which will be encouraging for South Africa as they move forward under the powerful left-hander's stewardship in the white-ball arena.
But De Kock won't be leading the Test team.
Recently appointed South Africa director of cricket, Graeme Smith said: "The one thing I can confirm is that Quinton will be our white-ball captain and he won't be the Test captain going forward.
"From a workload and mental capacity, we felt that to burden Quinton with all three formats wouldn't be beneficial for us.
"I can't tell you who [the next captain] is going to be. We are in a debate over it. There's no one person that you could pinpoint right now and say 'that's the guy'."
Smith hasn't come to the conclusion yet, nor might he ever, but could Bavuma be the guy?
Siya Kolisi, the Springboks' trailblazing skipper, has shown just how inspirational the appointment of a black man in South African sport can be. He is the team's first black captain in its 126-year history and he led them to World Cup glory in Japan in 2019.
Bavuma certainly wouldn't want anything handed to him. Speaking after his 95 in that first ODI against England, he said the following when reflecting on his struggles to cement a place in the South Africa setup.
"It has been hard. It's not so much the dropping part; all players get dropped, everyone goes through slumps of not scoring well.
"The awkwardness and discomfort from my side is when you are thrown into talks of transformation. Yes, I am black, that's my skin. But I play cricket because I love it.
"I'd like to think the reason I am in the team is because of performances I have put forward in my franchise side, and also for the national team, whenever I have been able to."
With his impressive white-ball showings against England, Bavuma should no doubt get more opportunities to live up to the billing of 'the next big thing' in South African cricket. And possibly as its first black African Test captain.
