KOLKATA: Before Thursday, Pat Cummins, the Australia captain, was averaging 28.50 with the willow despite his primary role being a bowler. His South African counterpart, Temba Bavuma, on the other hand, is a specialist batter opening for his team. But his batting average is way below Cummins at this World Cup.
After Bavuma was caught for a nought by wicketkeeper Josh Inglis off Mitchell Starc from the last delivery of the first over in the second semifinal here at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on Thursday, the figure, which holds great importance for every batter, sadly stands at 18.12. So far, he has scored 145 runs from eight matches with 35 being his highest, incidentally against the same opponents in a league match.
Among the ten captains at the ongoing showpiece event, Bavuma's batting average is second lowest with only England's Jos Buttler below him with an average of 15.33. In an ideal world of competitive sports, his modest returns of 8, 35, 16, 28, 24, 11, 23 and 0, he missed two matches - one each against England and Bangladesh due to a stomach bug- would have been enough for another batter to replace him in the playing XI.
Reeza Hendricks, who played two matches in his absence, even staked his claim by slamming 85 off just 75 balls in his first match of the event against England at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. He could manage only 12 in his next outing against Bangladesh before Bavuma returned to the side.
But it's South Africa and the situation with any sporting team in the country is complicated and entirely different from other nations. No doubt Bavuma's name will go down in the annals of history as far as sports in the Rainbow Nation are concerned. After all, he is the first black batter to play for the country and also the first black cricketer to captain them. The burden and the constant scrutiny that comes with it is hard to comprehend. However, here the concern has come from purely the fact he is not scoring runs at the biggest stage.
This year, before the World Cup commenced, he was the most prolific batter for the team scoring 637 runs from 10 matches including three centuries and two fifties in the ODIs. The 33-year-old right-hand batter's average was 79.62 during that purple phase. He scored a series-winning century against England in that period. The ton in turn played a significant part in securing South Africa's automatic qualification to this tournament.
Bavuma's current average is 45.81, which is also not bad enough. but his form dropped drastically during the World Cup making his place in the team that too as the leader of the unit debatable. The diminishing returns meant even South African coach Rob Walter had to come in defence of the beleaguered batter as the voices to replace him only grew louder in the build-up to the much-important clash.
“He hasn’t scored the runs he would have wanted to, but in every training and every innings, he looks like he’s close. A good score is just around the corner for him. Now as far as being undroppable, nobody is bigger than the team. The same goes for everyone,” Walter told the South African media a couple of days before the contest.
Bavuma had a hamstring strain, which hampered him in South Africa's last league match against Afghanistan in Ahmedabad. Speculations were rife about his availability even as the team started training in the City of Joy from November 13. The captain himself took part in those training sessions continuing the suspense.
Speaking on the eve of the match, he said, "Physically I feel alright. Obviously not 100%. So obviously this day becomes important in terms of decisions about tomorrow. I'm quite confident, but I mean, it's not a unilateral decision that will be made."He reiterated the same after the toss saying he is not 100 per cent fit but walked out to bat with fellow opener Quinton de Kock only to get out in the first over without troubling the scorers.
It would be harsh to blame him entirely for the failure of top-order in the last-four clash with all three of them not even reaching double figures. However, his place in the team, where all four batters in the top-5 except him has scored at least a century, remains questionable even if he is captain of the ship.
Bavuma this WC
8 vs Sri Lanka
35 vs Australia
16 vs Netherlands
28 vs Pakistan
24 vs New Zealand
11 vs India
23 vs Afghanistan
0 vs Australia