Defeat on Australia Tour Inspired South Africa's Test Transformation, Says Bavuma

The two teams who stake a claim for the title that begins at Lord's on Wednesday last came up against each other in 2022-23 when the Proteas were comprehensively beaten in the first two games of the series before a rain-hit last Test in Sydney spared their blushes.

“That wasn’t a good time,” Bavuma said. “I think for a lot of us who were there it was a little bit of an eye-opener, playing against Australia, seeing how their batters went about their business, facing their bowlers and how you were always under pressure and had to find ways to exert pressure back on them.

“At least for me, that gave me an opportunity to kind of have a look at my game to see where I can improve, and hopefully try to emulate the performances those batters were putting up. And I think also in terms of the way we wanted to play our cricket as a whole, it influenced that, encouraging guys to be themselves, to play their best cricket. Hopefully those memories are behind us and we can create new ones now. But I think it was a critical point in our journey as cricketers.”