Highveld Lions coach Geoffrey Toyana says Temba Bavuma is not an automatic choice to open the innings for the franchise, despite him scoring a century on debut in the one-off One-Day International against Ireland at the weekend.
Talks have been on-going for 18 months about Bavuma opening the batting in domestic limited overs competitions, but a plethora of options for the Lions, means Bavuma is better suited to playing in the middle order for his franchise. “If (the Lions) were playing a 50-over game tomorrow, Temba wouldn’t open the batting,” Toyana said yesterday.
Stephen Cook - when not on national duty, Rassie van der Dussen and the newly acquired Reeza Hendricks, are all options at the top of the order for the Lions and as Toyana pointed out, Bavuma, in his last limited overs game for the Lions, the eKasi Challenge against the Titans in Soweto, scored a hundred as well, batting at No 4.
“We have so many options at one and two in the order and not enough in the middle. You look at someone like Dominic Hendricks and we’ve had to turn him from being an opener into a middle order player,” Toyana explained.
Bavuma became just the second South African - after Colin Ingram - and the 12th player all time to score a century on their ODI debut when he made 113 against the Irish in Benoni on Sunday.
Bavuma also acknowledged, despite his success on Sunday that he’d probably be back at the No 4 position when the Lions play the Momentum One-Day Cup. “Looking at the dynamics of the Lions team it will be disruptive ... we have Cook and Hendricks who are well established opening batsmen. For me to come in and say: I want to open, that’s going to cause more harm than anything.”
“I’ve always just seen batting as batting, whether you’re batting at No 1 or batting at No 4, the ball is still the same. At the Lions, I’ll probably slot into the middle and try and go about things the way I normally do.”
Last week, Proteas coach Russell Domingo outlined how he believed Bavuma - at international level - was better suited to opening the innings in the limited overs formats.
“At this stage of his one-day career he’s probably not suited to playing at five and six and trying to hit fours and sixes at the end of the innings. If he hits a good shot in the first 10 overs, it will go for a boundary whereas if he hits a good shot in the last 10 overs it might only go for one,” said Domingo.
Bavuma’s selection on Sunday was ostensibly as cover for Hashim Amla, who is awaiting the birth of his third child and he is not in the squad for the five-match series against Australia, starting on Friday.
Toyana and Bavuma acknowledge that raising his intensity at the crease is an area that has improved but still needs work.
“Temba’s among the hardest working cricketers I’ve come across,” said Toyana. “He’s matured a lot and very quickly. He understands his game better now, he’s a smart cricketer and also just the ultimate team man.
“He has worked on his intensity at the crease, on ways to score quicker and he’s definitely better, but there’s always room for improvement,” said Toyana.
The Star