Proteas coach backs a Gabba stint for Bavuma

Proteas interim head coach Malibongwe Maketa has come out strongly in support of Temba Bavuma heading into the first Test against Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane starting on Saturday.

The righthander has not played much red-ball cricket in the past eight months. Bavuma was ruled out of the tour of the UK earlier in 2022 after sustaining an elbow injury and returned to the national fold only when he led the side at their ill-fated ICC Men’s T20 World Cup campaign in Australia.

He became the subject of vigorous debate after some disappointing performances, with various aspects of his white-ball game and leadership brought into question. He took some time off from the game after returning to SA and did not feature in any of the opening three Cricket SA 4-Day Franchise series games in November.

Asked about Bavuma’s state of mind, Maketa said the Lions player was in a good space and smiling again.

“In terms of how he has been batting, I am very happy with how he has progressed since his return to the squad.

“It would have been nice for him to have two innings but he has batted a lot of volumes since we got here, so in terms of that and the work he has done I am very happy,” Maketa said of Bavuma, who did not bat in the first innings of the tour match against the Cricket Australia XI.

“Where he is mentally ... smiling and confident again ... that bodes well for us in terms of being one of our best batsmen going into the series,” he added.

Maketa said the Proteas have had solid preparation ahead of the first instalment of the three-match series. Having recently concluded the four-day tour match, he said it had given his side a lot of confidence and valuable time out in the middle.

“We have been lucky to be able to come here and spend some time in conditions similar to what we will face.

“The batters scored some good runs in the warm-up game, Dean [Elgar] got a 100, Kyle [Verreynne] and Theunis [de Bruin] both got in the 80s and Rassie [van der Dussen] got a 90, so in that sense we got an opportunity to spend some time in the middle.

“Some of the guys got to face enough balls to feel comfortable, while the bowlers have been hitting the lengths we have been challenging them to hit, so we are very happy with how things have gone,” he said.

Asked how his batting line-up may look, Maketa said: “We do have our ideas [on who it might be], but we want to give the wicket another day or so. We were at The Gabba for the first time today [Wednesday], and speaking to the curator, he feels we are still a long way out for us to get an idea of how the wicket will look or play, so we will give ourselves a few more hours to make those decisions.”