Couple of weeks back, India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir had talked about how the 0-3 Test home whitewash to New Zealand in 2024 still rankles him. “I can never forget that and I should never forget that,” he had said. It turns out, neither has South Africa’s Test captain Temba Bavuma, who led his team to WTC title this year. “No team is unbeatable, right? New Zealand played very well in that series. Batters were fearless, bowlers executed their plans very well … so, those are the type of things we’ll also be looking to do,” Bavuma told SportsBoom.

Bavuma is South Africa’s first-ever full-time black captain, whose name, in his native Xhosa, means ‘hope’. And we can add confidence to it, going by his recent exploits. And that confidence is justified too. Without him, as he was sidelined by

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