“Thankfully, he’s got a heart like a giant. I will leave it at that,” Shukri Conrad, the South African head coach, said with a smile on Sunday afternoon, after a stunning 30-run defeat of India in the first of two Tests at Eden Gardens.
Conrad was referring to the size of the heart of his extraordinary captain, Temba Bavuma, who had overseen one of the great upsets in Test history. Having been behind the eight-ball for two days, South Africa came storming back to defend a target of 124 with tigerish resolve.
Gritty return
Bavuma, 35, had been dismissed for just three in the first innings on his comeback to the team after missing the 1-1 stalemate in Pakistan last month with a calf strain. This was the captain’s first outing since leading his team to a terrific victory against Australia in the final of the World Test Championship, where he battled a hamstring injury to make a decisive 66 in the second innings. That he did it with easily the most accomplished knock on a dicey, if not downright diabolical, surface, with an unbeaten 55 that under the circumstances was worth significantly more.
Impeccable record as leader
Batters respond differently to the cares of captaincy. Some lose form and forget the art of scoring runs, mentally shackled by the responsibility of having to look out for their colleagues too. Not Bavuma. He has a career Test average of 38.42; in the 54 matches when not captain, that drops to 34.53, but when in charge, he tilts the average charts at 57 runs per innings. Three of his four hundreds have come in his 11 Tests at the helm. No Test captain has taken fewer than Bavuma’s 11 matches to register 10 victories. The Proteas are yet to lose under him. They have won everywhere, with panache and flair.
The size of Bavuma’s heart was Conrad’s counter to a pointed question about a potentially disrespectful Hindi word Jasprit Bumrah used while discussing the possibility of a review for an unsuccessful leg before shout in the first innings with Rishabh Pant. The South African camp chose not to make an issue of it, maybe because they perceived no malice. Bavuma might be short in stature (five-feet four), but he is a man of tall deeds with the ‘heart of a giant’.