“I ’ve been a silent supporter of the way they’ve gone about things,” Temba Bavuma says as, in his role as the new captain of South Africa’s Test team, he considers the impact of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum on world cricket. “I say silent because I’m still a competitor of theirs.
I’ve always seen England as pioneers of cricket, but over the last year they’ve started to revolutionise the Test game. “We saw that in one-day cricket, which resulted in massive success for them in winning a World Cup.
Now we’re seeing it with the Test game as well. They have really changed how Test cricket is being played. We are taking a lot from their approach and, by adding our South African flavour, seeing how it could look like for us.” Bavuma is at home in Johannesburg on a quiet afternoon and once he has celebrated Bazball, as he also calls England’s explosive style of Test cricket, he will reflect on a momentous few weeks in his career.
In March, as South African Test cricket’s first black captain, he helped the Proteas to sweep aside West Indies. Fittingly, Bavuma finally scored his second Test century with a momentous 172 at the famous old Wanderers ground in Johannesburg.