'My recovery is going well': Temba Bavuma on his elbow injury

South African white-ball skipper Temba Bavuma will undergo an assessment later this week to take stock of the status of his elbow injury he sustained during the recent T20I series against India.

Bavuma sustained the injury while batting during the 4th T20I in India last month. He was subsequently unavailable for the series-decider in Bangalore. Further tests revealed that it would take at least eight weeks for the South African to recover completely, thereby ruling him out of the upcoming tour of England.

Bavuma recently visited a cricket seminar conducted by KFC in Rustenburg, where he revealed that his recovery process is going well.

‘’My recovery is going well. I am going for an assessment this week again to see how it is and how the bone has healed because I fractured a bone in my left elbow, which is my top hand. It is quite uncomfortable, but it is healing,” said Bavuma, as quoted by ewn.co.za.

Bavuma was one of the chief architects of South Africa’s Test, and ODI series wins against India earlier this year. But his form in the shortest format of the game has been woeful.

With fans questioning his place in the T20I set-up, Bavuma gave a philosophical view on his current break from the game.

‘’No one really wants to get injured. I don’t think there is a time for one to get injured, but if you look at it from that optimistic way of saying, it is a half-full glass. So I guess having time away from the game to reflect and sort out whatever you want from a physical and mental point of view is maybe good,” he said.

South Africa will undoubtedly miss his batting and acrobatic fielding in the Test and ODI series, and while Bavuma said that he would have loved to play in England, he feels that this break could well be a blessing in disguise for him in the long run.

‘’I would have loved to be in the UK with the guys because this is a big tour on our calendar, but certain things happen that you can’t exactly control and explain. Looking at it from that point of view, maybe it is a blessing in disguise,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Proteas have got off to a poor start to their UK sojourn as the Keshav Maharaj-led unit went down to the English Lions in a warm-up 50-over game thanks to their listless bowling attack, which failed to defend 318.

The Lions made a mockery of the target as they gunned it down in a mere 37.1 overs, with Will Smeed [90 off 56], Ben Duckett [85 off 67] and Stevie Eskinazi [52 not-out off 36] taking the Proteas attack to the cleaners. 

The Proteas will play another warm-up game against England Lions on July 14 in Worcester before the ODI series gets underway at Chester-le-Street on July 19.