Image Credit- AFP
A South African T20 team that hadn’t played together since December 2023* made the trip to the USA and the Caribbean last month in order to compete in the World Cup final. This month, in an attempt to get their World T20 campaign back on track, a South African Test team that last played together in the first week of January** is heading to the Caribbean for their busiest spell of red-ball cricket this cycle.
Despite having just played four Tests—you could say, only one genuine one—South Africa is ranked seventh in the standings. Due to an unsatisfactory Cape Town pitch, the Newlands Test against India lasted seven overs longer than an ODI. This was by no means a sign of good quality cricket, and the highlight of their trip to New Zealand was a “unacceptable” matchup with their premier T20 tournament, which saw a second-string squad become the first South Africans to lose a Test series to New Zealand.
With the first of four two-match series between now and January, South Africa’s World T20 Championship effectively gets underway immediately. This is their best opportunity to establish some semblance of form in the format, which is as rare a cricketing commodity as it gets for teams such as theirs.
“It’s a challenge that’s not necessarily unique to us and probably something that all the teams outside the big three face. It feels like we’re starting again and again as a team,” Temba Bavuma, South Africa’s Test captain said in Johannesburg. “You can hear in terms of the conversations, there’s a lot of reminding ourselves of a philosophy, how we want to play and basically what our blueprint is to winning. It’s nothing that is unique to us as a South African team . The challenge is we’ve just got to make it work with what we have. We don’t use it as an excuse. I think there’s definitely a lot of excitement from the guys and we’d like to focus on that excitement more than all the other uncontrollable.”
Bavuma hasn’t played any international cricket in 2024 and has only appeared in a few hours of a Test match during this cycle. On the opening day of the Boxing Day Test match against India, he got hurt while fielding and was later ruled out of the series due to a hamstring strain. He participated in the CSA T20 Challenge, two first-class games, and one SA20 match, but he has mainly remained hidden while he prepares for a well-publicized return.
“I’ve come out refreshed over the last couple of months of no cricket. It’s largely been about being in the gym and doing my rehab. I’ve been under rehab for the last two and a half to three months,” he said. “Mentally, that’s been tough; physically, it’s also been tough but I am quite refreshed and quite excited to have the opportunity again to be out there with the boys.”
South Africa are already without three fast bowlers, for example, after Anrich Nortje opted out of a central contract to concentrate on T20s, Marco Jansen was rested from this series and Gerald Coetzee was ruled out with a side strain. “Obviously, it’s a setback. We build our fast bowling attack on our fast bowlers. We’ll still find a way to be effective in those conditions. Guys like KG, Lungi (Ngidi) and Nandre Burger – it’s a massive opportunity for them again to put up their hands and lead that bowling attack,” Bavuma said.