Bavuma back to lead South Africa's bid to qualify for the World Test Championship Final

Temba Bavuma has recovered from an elbow injury and has been picked in the squad to play two tests against Sri Lanka as the Proteas look to confirm a place in next year’s World Test Championship final. Bavuma, the SA skipper hasn’t played competitive cricket since October 4, when he suffered an injury diving to make his ground during an ODI against Ireland in Abu Dhabi.

South Africa Test squad: Temba Bavuma (c), David Bedingham, Gerald Coetzee, Tony de Zorzi, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Dane Paterson, Kagiso Rabada, Tristan Stubbs, Ryan Rickelton, Kyle Verreynne.

Thus he was not part of the Lions’ opening two first-class fixtures and would miss the third, against Western Province at the Wanderers from Thursday, because South Africa will attend a two-day camp in Pretoria on the same day. They will then travel to Durban on Saturday, where the first test will be played from Wednesday. 

Kagiso Rabada is the other notable inclusion in the squad—Rabada, who was rested for the T20I leg against India that concluded on Friday. Marco Jansen and Ferlad Coetzee- who, in the India series, returned from their conditioning breaks back to the international level. Jansen and Coetzee last played Tests in January and December against India.  

That was SA’s last series at home and Dean Elgar’s final game before he hung up his boots. Lungi Ngidi and Nande Burger, who played in that game, are injured and will not be a part of this assignment. The selectorial losses from that series compared to this are Keegar Petersen and Zubayr Hamza. Ryan Rickelton, Senuran Muthusamy and Dane Peterson are in the 14, which is one player less than usual, a release cited Shukri Conrad as saying, “Allow players on the periphery of selection the opportunity to play first-class cricket for their respective provincial sides”. 

If South Africa wins both their tests against Lanka and the two against Pakistan at home in December and January, they will nail down their place in the World Test Championship final at Lords’ in June. 

Schedule:

1st Test: Kingsmead, Durban, November 27 to December 1

2nd Test: St George's Park, Gqeberha, December 5 to 9.