If captain Temba Bavuma is deemed fully fit by the medical staff, he should play their ICC World Cup semifinal against Australia at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday, despite his struggles with the bat in the competition, says former Proteas bowler Monde Zondeki.
Bavuma suffered a hamstring injury in South Africa’s final round-robin game against Afghanistan in Ahmedabad on Friday.
On Monday he took full part in an optional training session at Eden Gardens under the watchful eye of team physiotherapist Sizwe Hadebe and strength and conditioning coach Runeshan Moodley. The medical staff said Bavuma was not there for a fitness test but merely “part of the rehabilitation strategies of the recovery plan”.
Onlookers have bashed the skipper’s form in the World Cup campaign and have called for Reeza Hendricks to take his place. Bavuma has not been among the runs in the global showpiece despite some good starts. He has managed 145 runs in seven matches — Sri Lanka (8), Australia (35), Netherlands (16), Pakistan (28), New Zealand (24), India (11) and Afghanistan (23).
He missed the games against Bangladesh and England due to illness. In those two encounters, Hendricks scored of 82 and 12.
Zondeki, who featured in 11 ODIs between 2002 and 2008, believes Bavuma should be backed and kept in the starting XI for his captaincy abilities if he is fit.
“He has been going through a rough patch during this World Cup,” Zondeki said. “He has also missed two games because he was sick, and was injured in the last game.
“If he is fit, I’m starting him — he is our captain and he has been in really good form through the year. To make a change in the semifinal is a big call, especially when it comes to your skipper. I would play him; I wouldn’t even think about playing Reeza.
“He [Bavuma] has done a really good job of captaining the side this tournament. You have to back him to eventually come right in the semifinal and in the final, if he is fit and not drop him.”
If Bavuma is unable to play, Aiden Markram is likely to captain SA in the semifinal, while Hendricks could open the batting. It will be the third time the Proteas meet the men from Down Under in World Cup semis, and they will be in search of their first win having lost to them in 1999 and 2007. The Proteas beat the Baggy Greens in the round-robin stages but will now meet under the pressure circumstances they slipped up in previously.
Much will depend on the toss. The Proteas have been dominant when batting first but shaky chasing totals.
Australia can bat all the way to number eight and nine — we saw what Pat Cummins did when they beat Afghanistan recently. Let’s hope we will be more decisive on what we want to do when we are bowling to tailenders in the semifinal.
— Monde Zondeki
“There is something about the toss and SA batting first, they have been able to score a lot of runs and then put the pressure on the opposition when they chase our scores, it has worked for us really well so far in this World Cup,” Zondeki said.
“We have played Australia a lot quite recently, we beat them at home here in SA in the series before the World Cup and we beat them in the round-robin stages. But they [Australia] have peaked at the right time since then, they are doing very well at the moment.
“They will be a hard side to stop. I think the key area will be the discipline in our bowling. Our strength is our batting so far in this World Cup, though some of our bowlers have been taking some wickets. We need to be consistent with our lines and lengths and be able to put pressure on the Australian batting line-up.
“If we are chasing, we need to have the belief that we can chase down any total because we have struggled in the tournament so far, hopefully we win the toss because that will give us the confidence.”
With the Australians’ lower order cable of pinching some runs when their top order has been knocked off, Zondeki is concerned about the Proteas’ lack of killer instinct in bowling at the tail.
“Yes, we have won by huge margins at times, but we still let the tailenders hang around and not kill them off. We had Afghanistan by 116 for 6, we could not finish Bangladesh off, England it was the same thing, Sri-Lanka got over 300 runs against us, so there is a worry that we are not finishing off.
“Australia can bat all the way to number eight and nine — we saw what Pat Cummins did when they beat Afghanistan recently. Let’s hope we will be more decisive on what we want to do when we are bowling to tailenders in the semifinal and be able to do the same if we reach the final.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.