- Proteas coach Mark Boucher said newly appointed limited overs captain Temba Bavuma will bat at number three in Friday's first ODI against Pakistan at SuperSport Park.
- Bavuma's brief ODI career has seen him do well at the top of the order.
- Boucher also said Aiden Markram will overcome his difficult start to his ODI career.
Proteas coach Mark Boucher said newly appointed limited overs captain Temba Bavuma will bat at number three in Friday’s first ODI against Pakistan at SuperSport Park in Centurion.
Bavuma, a floater at best at Test level, is a bonafide top three batsman with four of his six ODI innings coming at first drop.
His two other innings came as an opener where he scored his maiden ODI ton against Ireland in Benoni in 2016.
With Aiden Markram, Quinton de Kock and Janneman Malan all in the squad as genuine and proven top-order options, Boucher is spoilt for choice. He was firm though with where his captain was going to bat.
“Temba will probably bat three and with Aiden, we’ve had meetings to see where we are at the moment and we’ve picked a squad that we feel is going to be in line with selections going into the 2023 World Cup. While we want to win, which is important, we are prepared to juggle around a few positions to see where we are going,” Boucher said.
“Upfront, we’d like to see a guy like Aiden batting three or four. Can he bat there in the future? I think he can and I think he’s one of those players. Right now, we’ll stick to giving guys opportunities in positions where they have done well for their franchises. We’ll probably see Aiden upfront and Temba at three.”
Markram comes across as quite the ODI enigma despite his proven red-ball credentials alongside his domestic white ball excellence.
When Markram powered the Titans to two massive Momentum 1-Day Cup final wins against the Warriors (2016/17) and the Dolphins (2018/19), Boucher watched on happily as the Titans coach.
In those games, Markram battered a 123-ball 161 as an opener against the Warriors and an 88-ball 127 from number four against the Dolphins where he showcased his power, acceleration, and versatility.
He hasn’t been able to replicate that for the Proteas with his 24 innings in 26 matches only returning 643 runs at an average of 27.95 with two 50s.
Boucher said they’ve addressed Markram’s ODI issues and it’s just a case of the talented opener coming good.
“With Aiden being the humble soul that he is, if he’s not scoring at 140 strike rate, he feels like he is holding up the team. There are certain guys in the team, like Quinny where if they’re scoring 100s, there aren’t that many players who will outscore them. The mental adjustment is that how do we get Aiden to score in the way he does at franchise level? It is something we have addressed with him,” Boucher said.
“Hopefully that can click very quickly and he can get some big runs. He’s one or two knocks away from understanding the way he can tick in white-ball cricket. He just needs to go out there and if he’s batting in the 40th over, he’ll probably be at 100 or over at more than a run-a-ball. We’ve seen what he can do when he bats deep.”