Leading up to the World cup, the talk has been for myself and Quinny up top: Bavuma

South Africa toured India recently for a five-match T20I series which ended up as a 2-2 draw. Proteas white-ball skipper, Temba Bavuma played the role of opening batter in the series.

However, Bavuma struggled with the bat as he managed to score 61 runs from four innings which he opened with Quinton de Kock and Reeza Hendricks.

In a recent interview, Bavuma said, “Leading up to the World cup, the talk has been for myself and Quinny (De Kock) to partner at the top, that was the plan going into the India series because we wanted to get consistency.”

In the series, De Kock suffered a hand injury and missed a few matches. Bavuma added that as an opening pair, De Kock and he couldn’t utilise the opportunities and achieve their plans.

Bavuma also clarified that Reeza Hendricks who replaced Quinton De Kock in the series has the role of replacement opening batter to play in the team.

“Reeza is the replacement opening batter, that’s where we see him playing a role within the team and has been (the case) for a number of years and I’m not too sure why that is an area of discussion,” he said.

He feels that experts do give their opinions for other players getting opportunities, but as a team, they know what their plans are. The South African team doesn’t need to give clarification for every single decision.

Protea’s skipper conceded that there is an opportunity for him to get better in the T20 format, however, defended his 50 overs performances.

“I am not too sure in the 50 overs stuff where the criticism comes from, I don’t know what my career stats look like but the last time I checked they were sitting quite pretty,” he said.

Bavuma added that he is working toward his game within the T20 space. He has assigned himself a particular role in the team as a batter. The shorter format of cricket has moved at such a pace that as a player one has to always focus on getting better and better.

Talking about his captaincy record, Bavuma mentioned that he feels that as a captain he has done well. As a team, the number of wins that they’ve managed is not a bad record.