Temba Bavuma had led South Africa to the World Test Championship 2025 title win.
Bavuma has led South Africa in 14 Tests till now, winning 12, and has an 85.71% win rate. This came after South Africa defeated Australia in the second Test in Gqeberha by an innings margin to level the three-match series 1-1.
Bavuma had also led South Africa to the ICC World Test Championship (WTC 2025) title win as well, defeating Australia in the final at Lord’s last year. In comparison, Rahane enjoyed a brilliant leadership record across formats for India as well, winning eight of his 11 games and losing just one.
“His record of winning 12 out of the 14 Tests he has captained the Proteas and losing only the first Test of the series is as stellar a record as that of Ajinkya Rahane, under whom India never lost a Test.
Both aren’t chest-thumpers, nor do they have an army of PR to try and influence the world as to how good they are. Bavuma’s demeanor on the field reminds so much of the much-loved and admired Gundappa Viswanath, who showed that to be a tough cricketer, one does not have to swear and rage against the world," Gavaskar wrote in Mid-day.
Bavuma had also led from the front, scoring 179 runs and helping South Africa recover from 110/6 to post 425/9d with valuable contributions from Marco Jansen (85) and Simon Harmer (82). This was after Australia was bowled out for 99 in their first innings and was then bowled out for 295 in the second innings, despite Travis Head’s century, losing the game by an innings and 31 runs.