Temba Bavuma came out as a 'proxy captain' with South Africa's Faf du Plessis and India's Virat Kohli at a Test in 2019 in Ranchi. (Screengrab via BCCI X)As captain of the South African team, Temba Bavuma is riding a wave of success. Recently, Bavuma scored 1000 Test runs as captain, thus becoming the second-fastest skipper to do so for South Africa. Bavuma led the South African side to victory at the Eden Gardens Test in Kolkata last week, and could actually steer the Proteas to a series victory over Shubman Gill’s India.
But not many will remember that Bavuma’s first “brush with captaincy” was actually in 2019, in a Test against India in Ranchi. Bavuma was not the captain for South Africa in the game, but he did walk out for the toss as a “proxy captain” with then India captain Virat Kohli and South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis.
Why?
Because regular South Africa captain Du Plessis wanted to end his streak of losing tosses. So he called on Bavuma to make the call on his behalf at the third and final Test against India at the JSCA Stadium in Ranchi.
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At the toss for the game, former India cricketer Murali Karthik said: “To my left we have South Africa captain Du Plessis and India skipper Virat Kohli. And then an interesting one, we have a proxy captain who will be there for the toss, which is Temba Bavuma.”
The ploy did not work, because South Africa still lost the toss with Kohli then opting to bat for the third time in the three-match series.
After losing another toss, du Plessis said: “It shows that it isn’t meant to be (win the toss with a proxy captain). Important toss as this looks the driest surface of the series. It’s about the first innings really and we need to put runs on the board when we bat.”
The ploy from South Africa copped them some flak from former South Africa captain Graeme Smith.
“It was a quirky moment but for me, it was a little bit pathetic,” Smith told Star Sports.
“It just shows the mindset of the South African side. I didn’t enjoy seeing that. I would rather see the South Africa captain stand there, own his position. You know, they are looking at the wrong places for the reasons they have lost the game. Unfortunately, they haven’t played well enough. Yes, winning the toss in the sub-continent is a nice thing to do but if you play well enough, you can still compete.”
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