Herschelle Gibbs questions the selection of Temba Bavuma and Theunis de Bruyn

South Africa had a horrid Test series back in 2015. Despite the experience in the batting line-up, they struggled to counter the spin conducive pitches in India. However, this time around, barring Faf du Plessis and Dean Elgar, no other South African batsmen had the experience of playing in India. It is a pretty inexperienced batting line-up in the absence of Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers.

However, they did fare way better in the first innings than they did in the entire Test series last time around. But it’s been the same old story in the second essay as the batting line-up has folded up pretty quickly. The likes of Temba Bavuma and Theunis de Bruyn failed in both innings and have come under the scanner.

Former South African Test opener Herschelle Gibbs has questioned the selection of the duo who are currently batting at No. 3 and 4 in this Test match. While Bavuma has returned with scores of 18 and 0, de Bruyn has had scores of 4 and 10. Bavuma was undone by the ball keeping low from the pacers in both innings but the latter was dismissed by Ravichandran Ashwin in both innings.

Hence, their selection has come under the scanner. Gibbs questions how long will South Africa persist with these two. Bavuma has been around for a while now. He made his debut back in 2014 and in 37 Test matches, he averages 32.11. Meanwhile, de Bruyn has been around for a couple of years and has been constantly in and out of the side. He has played 10 Test matches but averages just 18.95 which includes just one hundred and no fifties.

De Bruyn did score a ton in Sri Lanka last year which helped his stocks rise and as a result, he was asked to bat at No. 3 on this tour. However, he has struggled this year. He has scored just 87 runs from six innings in Test cricket in 2019. Bavuma has struggled as well. He has just 180 runs in nine Test innings this year. He has just one fifty-plus score which came in the first Test of the year against Pakistan. Hence, Gibbs has come out and criticised the duo’s selection.

Question is how long are they gonna persist with de bruyn and bavuma #INDvSA #sscricket

— Herschelle Gibbs (@hershybru) October 6, 2019