Temba Bavuma eager to nail down the No. 4 slot in the Test side

South Africa were jolted with a severe blow after AB de Villiers decided to retire from all the formats with immediate effect in the last month. He was playing some exceptional cricket and had played a crucial role in the preceding Test series against India and Australia. While they will be worried about the World Cup which is scheduled to take place next year, the Test team needs to find his replacement immediately. However, Temba Bavuma has put his hand up for the role and is ready to fill in the number 4 slot in the batting line-up of Proteas.

Bavuma has normally played at number 6 for his team ever since he has made his debut in the whites. But he found himself out of the playing XI after De Villiers made his come back to the international arena with the Test series against India. It seems that the right-hander and an excellent fielder will slot back into the team now for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka.

I will be opportunistic

Temba Bavuma is confident of doing well higher up the order as he is aiming to make a greater impact for his side in the five-day format. While the Proteas have tried a number of players at 4, the 28-year-old has got only one opportunity to prove himself before and that was against England in the final Test last year. He scored 46 and gave a good account of himself.

“I’ll be opportunistic. There is a role for someone to come in at No. 4 and I’ll put up my hand to bat in that position. Hopefully, the selectors are looking towards me. Maybe it is something that could help my game because I haven’t been able to convert my starts. Coming in at No. 4, the opportunity will be there to score those big runs, and you have to score big runs actually. With what I am trying to achieve, it could work hand in hand,” he said during the Proteas training camp in Pretoria.

Bavuma was part of the 2015 tour of India and had emerged as one of the better players of spin bowling in the team. They will face a similar challenge in Sri Lanka and he is hoping that the ball won’t turn much like it did in India.

“From a team point of view we didn’t do as well as we wanted to so there will be those gremlins in our heads, but I guess we got the opportunity to face the extreme of spin. Hopefully, in Sri Lanka, it’s not like that, but we will try to prepare for the worst and hopefully the good comes,” he was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

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