In the June summit match at Lord’s, South Africa will face the reigning champions, Australia, to determine the World Test Championship finalists. South Africa won the slot after defeating Pakistan 2-0 at home, while the Australians earned their ticket in the finals after defeating India 3-1 in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
A two-game Test series against India at home kicked off South Africa’s cycle. They lost the series to New Zealand after that, but they won the series against Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and the West Indies.
Michael Vaughan, a former cricketer for England, recently believed that because the Proteas did not play the higher-ranked teams, they advanced to the final by defeating no one. Vaughan said to Fox Cricket, “If you look at South Africa, they’ve gotten to the final by beating pretty much nobody.”
The captain of South Africa, Temba Bavuma, responded to the accusation by saying that a place in the WTC final is sufficient rebuttal to the detractors.
“I don’t want to reply to the naysayers. My only answer is that we are in the final. In South Africa, we would adore playing more. We wish we could put our abilities to the test much more often. Additionally, we would like to have much more opportunities to test our abilities. I recall the 1-1 India series we played at home. It was a two-match series, and I felt that the conclusion was a little disappointing. Last year, I believe England participated in roughly 22 Test matches. We played 12—nearly half. So, hopefully, you don’t actually experience those kinds of differences,” Bavuma told Hindustan Times.
They must have their justifications for considering us the underdog: Temba Bavuma
Australia was deemed the favourite by a number of observers prior to the summit match. After considering this, Bavuma acknowledged that South Africa is, in fact, the underdog.
“I suppose they have good cause to believe we are the underdog. Given how our campaign and Test Championship got off to a start and how we went on to win seven straight Test matches, I believe a lot of people would have written us off for reaching this position,” Bavuma stated.
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