Temba Bavuma named Test captain in shake-up of South African cricket

Dean Elgar, who became the Test captain in 2021 has been axed from the leadership role but included in the squad for the West Indies series which starts from February 28.Cricket South Africa described the series of changes as "part of a restructure within the leadership group of the national team".Another casualty of the shake-up is the chief selector Victor Mpitsang, who has been "released" from the role.

Bavuma earlier became the first black African to captain South Africa at cricket when he was named leader of the one-day international and Twenty20 international teams in March 2021.Buvuma however will relinquish his role in the T20 side.Elgar's stint as captain started well with Test series wins against West Indies, India and Bangladesh and a shared series away against world champions New Zealand.But they were heavily beaten in their two most recent series in England and Australia.Bavuma, meanwhile, came under criticism for his poor batting form in T20 internationals, notably in the T20 World Cup in Australia last year.According to Friday's statement, Bavuma will remain captain of the one-day team but will not lead the T20I team. The announcements were made by Enoch Nkwe, CSA's director of cricket, who said it had been decided to review the selection system. Mpitsang was relieved of his job.As an interim measure, the new national team coaches, Shukri Conrad (Test) and Rob Walter (limited overs) will play a leading role in selection."Temba is a player that has vast captaincy experience both at domestic level and on the international stage," said Nkwe."We trust he will deliver on all our expectations and help carry the team forward after some excellent work by his predecessor Dean during the same period."At the same