South Africa’s limited overs skipper has returned to the national side after suffering a thumb injury. Keshav Maharaj has been named the captain of the ODI team, while the T20I captain is yet to be announced.
Temba Bavuma was batting on 38 in the 26th over of the match when the right-handed batsman took a blow to his right thumb.
Bavuma had to be retired hurt, and it had an immediate impact on the on-going match as South Africa fell 14 runs short of the target. He had compiled a great partnership of 106 runs with Aiden Markram and the result of the match could have easily been different had the incident not occurred.
The 31-year-old has been sent back to SA, where he will consult a specialist as soon as possible. Keshav Maharaj will be leading the ODI side for the remainder of the 3-match series. After the 3 ODI matches, South Africa and Sri Lanka also have a 3-match T20I series planned. However, the makeshift captain of the T20I series has not been named as of yet.
When Bavuma was taken for scans on the evening of the 1st match, it was noticed that he had sustained a fracture on his thumb.
“The timelines for return to play will be defined subsequent to that,”
the CSA statement said, adding that the national selection panel would meet to identify the T20I captain for the series.
South Africa lost the first match by 14 runs and will be eager to come back with a bang. Maharaj was brilliant with the ball as he picked up two wickets at an economy rate of 3.00 in his quota of 10 overs.
Maharaj has previously admitted that he wants to lead the Test side in the future. His leadership performance in the current series could be a litmus test for his appointment as the skipper of the longer format in the future.
