Temba Bavuma, the Test captain of South Africa, will miss today’s domestic first-class final in Johannesburg due to a recurrence of the elbow ailment that has halted his career. According to information obtained by ESPNcricinfo, Bavuma was supposed to arrive in Johannesburg on Tuesday to join the Lions team from Cape Town, but he never did.
Bavuma’s injury, which happened two months before the World Test Championship final in June, prevented him from playing the game, the Lions learnt late on Wednesday.
The Lions were taken aback by Bavuma’s late retirement from the game and have not been informed of the specific elbow he injured or its severity. Lions captain Dominic Hendricks expressed his excitement to the media on Wednesday afternoon about playing with Bavuma in the main event.
In 2022, Bavuma suffered a fracture to his left elbow, which kept him out of action for three months during South Africa’s tour of England. In an ODI in Abu Dhabi last year, he fell awkwardly while completing a single against Ireland, reinjuring the same elbow. As a result, he was unable to play in South Africa’s Test match against Bangladesh.
After a miserable run that featured injuries to both hamstrings, he openly talked about facing mental demons and did not practise for red-ball matches prior to the home summer. With two hundreds in four Test matches and a string of four fifty-plus runs against Sri Lanka, Bavuma nevertheless produced a stunning return. Throughout the season, he has batted with a lot of strapping on his elbow, but he also led South Africa to the Champions Trophy semifinal.
Bavuma hasn’t played competitive cricket since the Champions Trophy, but he was there for the Lions’ penultimate first-class league game in Bloemfontein last week, which was washed out. After that, he went to Cape Town, where he was supposed to return to the squad before the final matchup with the Titans. However, since then, he has been injured.
On June 11, South Africa will play Australia in the WTC final, which is just eight weeks away. In preparation for the final, they are scheduling practice games starting in mid-May, one of which will be against an international team in England. With a few of players competing in the IPL 2025 and some on the county circuit, they won’t play any cricket before then. The final was supposed to be Bavuma’s final game of the season, but the most recent injury has derailed those preparations. He has no overseas commitments. This week, he was included to CSA’s central contract list.
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