Temba Bavuma Replaces Dean Elgar As South Africa's New Test Captain

Temba Bavuma was on Friday named the first black African captain of South Africa's Test squad in what Cricket South Africa described as "part of a restructure within the leadership group of the national team". Dean Elgar was axed as captain, although he remains a member of the squad which starts a series against the West Indies on February 28. Chief selector Victor Mpitsang was another casualty of the shake-up, with CSA stating he had been "released" from the role. Bavuma 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.

At the same time Elgar was named Test captain.

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 relinquish his role in the T20 side.

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