Temba Bavuma becomes South Africa’s joint second-fastest captain to reach 1000 Test runs behind Graeme Smith

Temba Bavuma solidifies his legacy as South Africa's Test captain, surpassing 1000 runs in his 20th innings. He joins an elite group of South African captains.

Temba Bavuma keeps adding to his stature as a Test captain for South Africa. On a bright Guwahati morning, with Jasprit Bumrah probing and India sniffing a way back into the series, Bavuma quietly slipped into a club reserved for South African giants. While reaching 31 during the first innings of the second Test between India and South Africa, he went past 1000 Test runs as captain.

Temba Bavuma plays a shot as Rishabh Pant watches during the first day of the second Test. (AFP)

Bavuma reached the landmark in his 20th innings as captain, making him the joint second fastest South African skipper to reach the landmark alongside Dudley Nurse, with only Graeme Smith getting there quicker in 17 innings. The Guwahati knock also made him just the ninth South African to score 1000 Test runs while leading the side.

Since taking over the Test side, Temba Bavuma has scored these 1,000 runs as captain at an average of around 57 while staying unbeaten in 11 Tests, with 10 wins and a draw - a run that already includes a World Test Championship title at Lord’s and last week’s breakthrough victory at the Eden Gardens, South Africa’s first Test win in India since 2010.

Bavuma has seemingly transformed into a different batter after taking over the responsibility. There is still a ceiling to break - the lack of monster hundreds in Asia, the tendency to stall in the 30s and 40s. But as he struck a partnership with Tristan Stubbs and kept India from running away with the game, the pattern of the last two years repeated itself: a calm, compact innings that bends the match slowly, and a captaincy career that is starting to look legendary in a very short span of time.