EXCLUSIVE: Proteas limited overs captain Temba Bavuma chats to Sport24

Sport24 asked: Did you dream you’d play 50 Tests and captain your country?

Temba Bavuma: No, not at all. I don’t think it was something realistic to be honest. To play for my country was something that was there but to have played for as long as I have, I can’t say it was something I envisioned or dreamed of. For me, the captaincy (which he assumed in 2021) is still a learning journey and I wouldn’t say I’m comfortable. With the responsibility, pressures and challenges that come with the captaincy, I feel it’s something that tests you every series. I try to take the captaincy in my stride and learn as much as I can. In terms of my highest high, it would be the way we performed at the previous T20 World Cup in the UAE. I know we didn’t get to the play-offs but as captain I was proud of the way we went about our business as a team in light of everything that was happening off the field. The way the guys rallied themselves and played as one was quite a big achievement for that group. In terms of the lowest of lows, there have been challenging moments and our most recent ODI series loss to Bangladesh was a bitter pill to swallow. It hurt for a lot of us in the team. If we had won that series we could have said that we had a super successful white ball season. I don’t think we underestimated Bangladesh as opponents. In our preparations, we spoke about not underestimating them or taking them for granted. We will have to look at our actions and how we went about our business in terms of preparation. For me, they definitely outplayed us in the ODI series. From a bowling front, they were able to put our batters under pressure as they were bowling 140 km/ph and from a batting front, they really took the attack to us. 

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