Temba Bavuma dropped from the Test side; asked to gain form through domestic matches

South African middle-order batsman Temba Bavuma was dropped from the Test side and was instructed to return to the domestic circuit. He was also instructed to get back into the national side after scoring some runs in the domestic circuit. Rassie Van Der Dussen will continue at number 5 for the second Test.

Captain Faf du Plessis stated there will only be one change to the playing XI for the second Test against England as Pieter Malan is going to make his debut in place of the injured Aiden Markram. Jacques Kallis, the new batting consultant of South Africa closely watched Bavuma’s net session and advised him about hitting the ball with softer hands. Bavuma is likely to be released to play the four-day franchise matches which will start from Jan 6.

Temba Bavuma has also passed the fitness test

Bavuma cleared the fitness test before the match which is not enough for him to be a part of playing XI due to poor form. He may not feature in the remainder of the series as Du Plessis clearly stated that they are going to stick with Van der Dussen. Bavuma hasn’t scored a fifty in his last twelve Test innings. He will play three domestic games and his chances of getting selected for the West Indies tour rely on his performances in those three fixtures.

“Temba is on board. Something we are trying to achieve as a batting unit is to raise our standards a little bit higher, push our performances from a runs point of view. He is on board with the process to try and get guys to score big runs,” Du Plessis said as quoted by ESPN Cricinfo.

Bavuma will continue to play in the limited-overs format

Du Plessis also confirmed that Bavuma will continue in the limited-overs side as he has shown a lot of growth in his own game. As an opening batsman in ODI cricket, Bavuma has scored a century on his debut against Ireland. Hashim Amla’s retirement made it easy for the South African. He also scored 49 on his T20 debut against India in September 2019.