IND vs SA | Managing conversations around change-room has been the biggest challenge, says Temba Bavuma
Temba Bavuma scored 153 runs in three ODIs against India
|Temba Bavuma has said that managing conversations around change-room and ensuring that the energy is geared towards performance has been the biggest challenge for him during the captaincy. Bavuma further added that the recent ODI series win by 3-0 against India speaks a lot to his captaincy.
South Africa won a three match ODI series against India by 3-0 winning the third ODI by four runs on Sunday. The series victory becomes important for the team as South African cricket is going through an administrative crisis and allegations of racism have been levelled against some big names including head coach Mark Boucher. Boucher has been accused of racism and is charged with ‘gross misconduct’ in the findings of the Social Justice and Nation Building report.
Reflecting on the ODI series win against India, captain Temba Bavuma has said that managing conversations around change-room has been the biggest challenge.
“I don’t think it’s easy (captaining the team). There are a lot of dynamics that you need to manage. For me, the biggest thing is trying to keep cricket the main focus amongst the guys,” Bavuma told reporters on Sunday.
“I hate to bring this up but it’s been a challenging period for the team, for the players, for particular members of management.”
“There’s been a lot of scrutiny surrounding the team and surrounding the organisation, so to manage the conversations happening around the change-room and to ensure our energy is 100 per cent geared towards performing out there, for me, has been the biggest challenge.”
Bavuma scored 153 runs from three matches with an average of 51. Bavuma said that beating the Indian team convincingly speaks a lot to his captaincy but these are still early days since he has taken charge of the team.
“it means a lot as a player. Knowing I contributed to the winning cause makes it better,” he elaborated.
“You will always be judged on your record and to convincingly beat an Indian side speaks a lot to my captaincy. But things are still early from a leadership point of view. I will take the positives but I will try very hard not to get ahead of myself.”
Bavuma further added that he enjoys the captaincy.
“It seems to have brought the benefit of that showing in my own performances too.I enjoy the tactical side of things. There’s a lot of thinking involved. And that thinking extends to your own game too. I suppose I’m a bit more clearer in terms of what I want myself to do,” he concluded.
