Undercooked Bavuma was set up to fail

The joys of watching Test cricket at Newlands are obvious – glorious weather, stunning scenery, a large and engaged crowd, and a pitch that offers a great contest between bat and ball.

But at the back of my mind there have been two issues disturbing the serenity of the occasion: the sad loss of memory suffered by Australian captain Steve Smith, possibly caused by that earth-shuddering blow to the shoulder in Port Elizabeth; and the selection of Temba Bavuma.

I am actually a big fan of the diminutive batsman but even in this age of ever-improving technologies, better conditioning and a strong emphasis on mental preparation, the truism remains that nothing beats time out in the middle, no matter how intense your net sessions may be.

Bavuma has not played anything other than a club game for two months, he has been away from that competitive fire that you only find out in the middle, in the heat of battle, and yet he was thrown into the arena against Australia, whose potent attack and hard edge as a team offers a challenge that cannot be replicated in the nets.

It was no surprise then that he was dispensed within a dozen balls by Australia in the first innings. There is no doubt that Bavuma has plenty to offer the Test batting line-up in terms of adding some steel to the middle-order, he’s the type of guy who makes tough runs.

But with no competitive cricket behind him, it was wrong to select him for the third Test and he should have been playing in the final round of the Sunfoil Series for the Cape Cobras instead.

In fact, Bavuma should have been playing last weekend for the Cobras, in between the second and third Tests, and it is known that the national selectors’ telephones were ringing as they tried to figure out just exactly why he wasn’t getting the best preparation possible for his Test return.

The answer is somewhere between a personal matter relating to his upcoming wedding and his PR commitment to the Coca-Cola T20 Schools Challenge; but this is besides the point. Having not played any cricket in two months, Bavuma should not have been chosen at Newlands. This is only setting him up for failure.

Another batsman getting used to a rare sense of failure is Smith. In a series of diminishing returns he has made scores of 58, 38, 25, 11 and five. But this is not why I’m worried about him, for I am sure a player of his quality will bounce back soon.

It’s his loss of memory that is troubling me. Before the Newlands Test, Smith said his team would not target nor antagonise Kagiso Rabada in order to get him another demerit point and a ban that will stick this time around, because “that’s not how we play the game”.

But this is the complete opposite to what Smith said before the start of the series. As reported by Australian media, the skipper said targeting Rabada and trying to get him suspended could well be a tactic they would try.

Much like the ever-fluid “line” the Australians love so much, their fork-tongued captain presents a different answer to the same question depending on which way the wind is blowing.

It is a paradox similar to their stance on the stump microphones – Australia insist they are a side that does not cross the line however bad a bout of verbal diarrhoea they are suffering from, and yet they also push for a broadcast ban on those microphones with a zeal that verges on desperation. A team of innocents would not be losing a smidgen of sleep over a public revelation of their on-field behaviour, would they?

Australia are a top-class side that really does not need those sideshows anyway.