Injured Bavuma ruled out of New Year’s Test in Cape Town, Hamza called up as replacement

Proteas Test captain Temba Bavuma has been ruled out of the second and final Test match against India in Cape Town next week with a hamstring injury and he will be replaced by Zubayr Hamza. 

This also means that Dean Elgar, who scored a well-taken century to help South Africa to an emphatic innings and 32 runs win during the Boxing Day Test in Centurion, will captain the side on his last match for South Africa. 

Bavuma pulled up the hamstring while fielding on Tuesday and coach Shukri Conrad said the plan is to have him ready for the start of SA 20, which starts in the second week of next month. 

“He is definitely out for Cape Town, yes. Hamza will be joining the squad in the next day or two here or down in Cape Town, they are currently playing a four-day match against India A in Benoni,” said Conrad, who also talked about why they took long to announce whether Bavuma will bat in the first innings or not. 

“I’ll take that one on me, Temba is not in a great physical state and it is the other hamstring as you know. He was ready to bat at every turn and we kept on monitoring it. When you put something out there, I don’t know if the opposition will pick it up. 

“Certain things are tactical, but I must make the point that we were monitoring the situation all the time. When we reached the point we wanted to reach, it was not because we felt it was enough but if we send him out, there was potential risk of aggravating the injury even further. 

“If we lost a few wickets early, he probably would have walked in at some stage, but things went very well for us. We even got the message out at one stage to Marco (Jansen) and Nandre (Burger) to take every run because we felt that with a lead of 150 we could really boss the game. We got there and I felt it wasn’t necessary to risk him. 

“The state of play is that he will be assessed in two weeks’ time before the SA20, and a decision will then be taken on whether he will be available for the tournament or not.” 

This situation has opened the door for Elgar to lead the side on his last match for the country. 

“Obviously it is Dean’s swansong and he will captain the side. I must add that if there was this frosty relationship between us, then he wouldn’t be captain. Maybe that needs to be kicked into touch right here.” 

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