• Home
  • Cricket News
  • Aiden Markram Replaces Temba Bavuma As Captain For 1St Odi Against Bangladesh

Aiden Markram Replaces Temba Bavuma As Captain For 1st ODI Against Afghanistan

Temba Bavuma will miss the first ODI vs AFG (X.com)Temba Bavuma will miss the first ODI vs AFG (X.com)

Temba Bavuma, South Africa's regular skipper in the ODI format, has been ruled out of the first ODI between Afghanistan and South Africa due to illness. Aiden Markram will lead the side in his absence, and it is a big blow for the visitors in the build-up to the Champions Trophy next year.

South Africa are already missing big players like David Miller, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje among many others and the loss of Temba Bavuma means they will be further short of experience against an Afghanistan team that has impressed quite a lot in the recent times. In the absence of Bavuma, Tony de Zorzi is all set to open with Reeza Hendricks with Aiden Markram taking the number 3 position.

Chance For South Africa To Test Bench Strength

It is an important series for both the teams as there are not a lot of ODIs before the Champions Trophy and this series provides a great opportunity to test out the arsenal ahead of that big competition. For South Africa, specifically, this is a chance to test their bench strength, and it would be interesting to see how they go about their business.

As far as Bavuma is concerned, he has been battling injuries throughout his career, and there have been plenty of incidents where he has missed important matches due to freak injuries. The latest setback is also a pretty unexpected one, and there is still doubt whether he will be fit for the rest of the series.

The first ODI is set to be played on September 18th at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, and the next two games, scheduled for September 20th and 22nd, will also be played at the same venue.