Follow UsSouth Africa are not worried about Temba Bavuma’s strike rate in the shortest format of the game. Amongst openers from the top-10 ranked T20I sides who have played at least 10 innings since 2021, the South African white-ball skipper has the fourth-worst strike rate (115.9). In this period, Bavuma has managed only 160 runs in 10 innings at an average of 17.78.
The right-hander even struggled to get going in the recently concluded T20I series in India. Bavuma only managed 61 runs in four innings at a strike rate of 103.38 and struggled particularly against Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The right-arm seamer bowled 25 deliveries to Bavuma and the batter could only score 13 runs and also got out to him once.
Talking about Bavuma’s strike rate, South Africa head coach Mark Boucher said: “Temba struggled during the tour. There's no doubt. But he only really struggled against one bowler and that was (Bhuvneshwar) Kumar. Most of the guys struggled against him. Let's give him credit where it's due. Kumar is a fantastic bowler in those conditions.
"There were times when the ball was swinging a lot which makes him very, very dangerous. Also, the ball was up and down a lot, especially with the new ball. We look at it as coaches and say how do we have a look at that particular bowler and how do we give him (Bavuma) more options?
"It's quite difficult for him to change up during a series where you basically travel-play, travel-play. To come into a series, T20, as an opening batter, you've got to go from the get-go, that was always going to be quite tough for him, especially against Kumar. With other bowlers his strike rates are fine. There's no issue there."
While Bavuma couldn’t get going against Bhuvneshwar but scored 48 off 34 deliveries he faced from the rest of India's attack, at a strike rate of 141.18. Boucher said it’s important for the batters to understand how they want to approach at the start of the innings and how adding a shot or two could improve their strike rate by a decent margin.
"We've had conversations about the first 10 balls that you face. What's your goal? Is it (to score) 10 off 10 or 14 off 10? It's one boundary extra that you're looking at and 14 off 10 is going at 140. The margins are not as big as what people actually think.
"It's maybe just another scoring option. We did it last year with regards to scoring all around the wickets. You would have seen reverse-sweeps come in, guys who have never lapped before, they've got the lap option. If you give batters one or two more options to try and take the strike rate a little bit higher than what they've got at the moment, it's challenging players and it's pushing them to become the best in the world.
“If you look at it in its entirety you might think it's near impossible for a guy to get to a strike rate of 140 if he is at 120 but it could just be merely just adding another shot to his whole repertoire that could change that.”
Boucher said his batters will have to change their mindset and if they can do that, South Africa could also become as explosive as India and England.
“You need to have the technical know-how on how to play a shot. Once you get the confidence of adding that extra shot to your batting, or ball to your bowling, it's having the mindset to go out there and really trust it.
"Ultimately, you're not going to win World Cups with a mindset where you are tentative. You've got to go out there and play. There's been other teams in the world - India have showed us the way they play, England and the way they play- that's really the way forward, especially in the shorter version of the game."