OPINION: Test captain Bavuma is where he should have been all along

Temba Bavuma is finally where he should have been all along, but as usual, only after Cricket South Africa (CSA) made a complete mess of everything.

CSA have built a solid reputation of digging deep holes for themselves over the past few years and they once again did the same when naming Bavuma as the T20 and ODI captain and Dean Elgar as the Test captain back in March 2021.

Elgar was not a bad pick as a Test captain and he has received a bit of a raw deal in being removed from the position, so it will be interesting to see how he progresses from here.

But he probably should have never been put in the position as it should have been Bavuma from the start.

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Bavuma should have been named Test and ODI captain, while a youngster should have been put in charge of the T20 team.

The T20 team is the perfect place for a younger star to cut his teeth as a captain, before moving onto the bigger role on the ODI and Test front.

Aiden Markram should be the man to take over the Proteas T20 side and if he can improve his Test form he could be the long term successor to Bavuma in the longer formats.

T20 captain

Bavuma should have never been named T20 captain because the format is not his favoured one.

Personally I have never minded Bavuma being in the Proteas T20 side, as he is a useful top order batter, and if he has a more aggressive player with him he could play a more natural role.

But as it is not a preferred format of his, going through ups and downs and slumps was bound to happen, and dropping a captain is a massive thing that does not happen very often.

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As seen in the Proteas’ disastrous T20 World Cup campaign in Australia last year, Bavuma ended up being backed through the whole tournament in dreadful form, while one of the form batters in the world in T20 cricket at the time, Reeza Hendricks, sat wasting away on the bench.

Now with the T20 captaincy off his back, Bavuma can focus on leading in his preferred formats, and if his form isn’t good enough to be in the T20 side, that isn’t a problem anymore.