We need to talk about Temba. If that seems familiar it’s because it was the headline on a Cricbuzz piece from November last year, nearly a month after Temba Bavuma had presided over catastrophe in the shape of South Africa’s loss to the Netherlands, and with that their exit from the T20 World Cup.
Now the issue is whether Bavuma should keep his place in an ODI World Cup XI in which he has underwhelmed. Six members of the squad have scored more runs than he has, eight have higher averages, and 11 have a better strike rate in the tournament.
The last three words of that sentence are important. Bavuma arrived at the World Cup as South Africa’s leading run-scorer in ODIs this year. All told, he has had 36 innings in the format and made 1,512 runs. The only South Africa players who had scored more runs at the same stage of their careers are Hashim Amla and Rassie van der Dussen.
Since Bavuma made his ODI debut, in September 2016, Quinton de Kock, David Miller, Faf du Plessis, Van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Amla and Heinrich Klaasen have scored between 2,787 and 137 runs more than Bavuma. They have also had between 55 and eight more innings than Bavuma.
Before the World Cup, Bavuma averaged 54.68 with a strike rate of 91.07. At the tournament he has an average of 20.71 and a strike rate of 75.12. As of Saturday, 78 of the 149 players who have batted at this World Cup have a better average than Bavuma. Ninety-one have a higher strike rate. Fifty-four have scored more runs than his 145 in seven innings.
Yet Bavuma’s only single-figure effort was his eight against Sri Lanka in Delhi. He has passed 20 three times and faced from five to 55 balls. He has played with authority and purpose every time he has come to the crease, but there is no column in the scorebook for looking good.
And still, despite the captain’s minimal contribution with the bat, his team have won seven of their nine games. Two of those victories, over England and Bangladesh, both at the Wankhede, were achieved under the leadership of Markram, who stood in while Bavuma was overcoming a stomach problem. But to hear Bavuma’s players talk about him is to know he is the leader of this pack.
“It was very unfortunate for Temba and we obviously missed him, his leadership on the field,” Markram said about Bavuma being forced out minutes before the toss for the game against England.
As with many captains, and more so with South Africa’s, Bavuma’s value to his team is impossible to transpose into mere numbers. Who else could fill the position anywhere near as well, angling one ear to matters on the field, the other to the cares of leadership, and a third, inner ear to the cacophony coming from far away and all around? Who else would know which of those noises to ignore and which to take seriously? Who else could put up with what Bavuma puts up with, and score even the modest amount of runs he has made at the World Cup?
So to watch him against Afghanistan in Ahmedabad on Friday was to wonder whether that inner ear needed tuning. He strained a hamstring after nine balls of the Afghans’ innings, but stayed on the field even though his ability to run was significantly affected. He opened the innings as planned, and made a pitiful sight as he hobbled between the wickets; twice almost losing his footing as his right leg dragged. And that in a match that had no bearing on South Africa’s status in the tournament.
It was difficult to avoid the conclusion that he was desperate. If he left the scene to seek treatment would he be able, physically, to return? If he wasn’t up to that, would he get his place back in the side for Thursday’s semifinal against Australia at Eden Gardens? That is irrational: Bavuma went straight back into the team after his enforced absence in Mumbai – even though his replacement, Reeza Hendricks, had scored 85 off 75 against the English.
But when all you can hear is something close to hatred at your presence, when each meme is more crudely cruel than the last, when the racists don’t even try to hide their racism in plain sight anymore, the selflessness that has always been your hallmark could curdle into something that looks like selfishness.
Did Bavuma soldiering on against Afghanistan amount to him putting his team before himself, or himself before his team? Wouldn’t the greater good be served by coming off to preserve his hamstring in the cause of being fit enough to lead his team in the semifinal, rather than setting the example in – for the South Africans – a meaningless match? The empathetic relief was palpable when he holed out to deep square leg for 23 off 28.
“As much as it was our last league game, and it didn’t have a big bearing in terms of our playoff, I still wanted to be out there with the guys and have an opportunity to spend time in the middle,” Bavuma said in a television interview. “So I didn’t want to let that go. But I also wanted to keep leading the guys, keep marshalling out in the field, keep strengthening those relationships with the bowlers. It was a bit risky but that’s what I felt was right.”
Van der Dussen corroborated Bavuma’s version: “They did give him the option to go off for a period and come back so he could open the batting. But not once did he say he’s going to go off and letting the other guys bat.”
Now what? Who can say. Team management have botched their handling of the issue by, bizarrely, being economical with information despite many enquiries asking whether Bavuma’s leg had been scanned or would be scanned. At 6.30pm on Saturday, reporters were informed that he had “showed an improvement overnight”. At 9am (IST) on Sunday, around 36 hours after Friday’s match had ended, it was allowed that Bavuma did not undergo a scan. Questions why that hasn’t happened – wasn’t it vital to ascertain the extent of the injury? – are as yet unanswered.
When Matt Henry pulled up with, wouldn’t you know it, a right hamstring strain while bowling his sixth over against South Africa in Pune on November 1, that he would be taken off for a scan was communicated long before the match was over. There’s a lesson in that.
Meanwhile the most important ODI of not only Bavuma’s career but also of his players’ is days away. And that in the shadow of the established truth that hamstring strains are notoriously tenacious – just like the victim in this case.
“Temba being Temba, he’s very stubborn; a strong character,” Enoch Nkwe, CSA’s director of cricket, told Cricbuzz in November – three months before Bavuma relinquished the T20I captaincy.
Some people would call Bavuma steadfast, others would describe him as obstinate. Whichever it is in this case, South Africa do not have three months to wait for a call to be made.
If Bavuma is or could be fit for Thursday, he should be kept in the mix. If he isn’t or won’t be, he should be scratched off the list of available players. The choice shouldn’t be his to make alone, if at all. The racist haters cannot be granted the unearned privilege of influencing the outcome. It really is as simple as that.
