Temba Bavuma South Africa’s Test captain, has recovered from his elbow injury in time to be available for their two-Test series at home against Sri Lanka. Bavuma will lead a 14-man side which also features Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee, who both made their international returns from a conditioning break in the recent T20I series against India and have not played Tests since last summer.

Bavuma will bolster an inexperienced batting line-up, who had three maiden centurions in Bangladesh last month, and a team who are chasing a spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) final.

South Africa need to win all four Tests at home – two against Sri Lanka and two against Pakistan – to guarantee their place at Lord’s next year. They could also make it with three wins out of four, based on results elsewhere. Either way, the importance of the next four Tests is clear and having their regular captain back was top of mind for Test coach Shukri Conrad  who called his side “still Temba’s team” where Bavuma was unable to play.

He travelled with the side but was battling the after-effects of the injury, which was sustained during an ODI against Ireland on October 4. Bavuma has not played any competitive cricket since then. He has also not played any red-ball cricket since Tests against West Indies in August, but Conrad is confident Bavuma will be ready for the upcoming challenges.

“He’s probably going in cold in the back of not having played any matches but we’re certainly going to be simulating match situations during our short camp we’re going to have in Pretoria,” Conrad said. “His fitness test was always going to be yesterday (Monday, November 18) and then it would just be too close to a four-day match and too close to the Test match (for him to play a game). If we had asked him to or forced him to play last week, I think it could have been detrimental. And I don’t think there was anything to gain from that.”

Instead, Bavuma underwent an extensive assessment which included batting for 90 minutes on Monday to determine whether his left elbow had sufficiently recovered from an awkward land when completing a run against Ireland. It is the same elbow that Bavuma injured in 2022.

“The concern was the impact on striking the ball and if there was any pain associated with that. That was still the case when we were in Bangladesh, which then ruled him out of the second Test there. So, it included a battery of tests,” Conrad said. “There was the fitness side of things, the aerobic stuff with the running and doing all of that. We had our high-performance lead, Tumi  Masekela, there. And then, also, he had an hour-and-a-half of batting with quick bowlers. He had a throw-down net with (fielding coach) Kruger van Wyk and a couple of throwers there as well. He got through that really well; unscathed and there was absolutely no pain. We felt that on the back of that, he could be cleared to play.

Equally, Conrad said Bavuma is looking forward to leading a side he has only captained five times out of 10 possible opportunities since being named Test captain in March 2023. “He’s excited,” Conrad said. “He’s like a little kid in a toy shop at the moment because he hasn’t played Test cricket in a while.”

The sense of expectation is high given the opportunity of making the WTC final. South Africa have loaded up with as many available fast bowlers possible with Kagiso Rabada to lead the attack, the experienced Dane Paterson included and the recall of Jansen and Coetzee. Lungi Ngidi is unavailable (groin injury) until January and Anrich Nortje has opted out of Tests for the time being having come back from lower-back stress fractures.

There was some concern around Coetzee, who left the field during the fourth T20I against India, with what looked like a hamstring concern but returned to bowl later in the game. He has cleared the scans.

South Africa have included two spinners in Keshav Maharaj and Senuran Muthusamy, but have no space for US-based offspinner Dane Piedt,  who has been part of the last three Test squads. The batting line-up will include Aiden Markram and Tony de Zorzi at the top, Tristan Stubbs at No. 3 and allrounder Wiaan Mulder in the lower middle order. Ryan Rickelton will likely make way for Bavuma in what Conrad called “almost like a knockout quarter-final with us and Sri Lanka.”

Sri Lanka are third on the WTC points table, 1.39 percentage points above South Africa, and also in with a chance of making the final. “That table is going to be quite a topsy-turvy one over the next couple of months,” Conrad said. “We all understand the magnitude of it. We also understand that we’ve got to play really good cricket in order for us to achieve the goal. I think we’re going to run into a very confident Sri Lanka side.

“But we certainly know that if we play anything close to our ability, that we’ll be right there when it matters. It’s an exciting time for the Test side.”

The two-Test series begins in Durban on November 27 before the teams move to Gqeberha for the second Test starting December 5.

South Africa squad for Test series against Sri Lanka

Temba Bavuma (capt), David Bedingham, Gerald Coetzee, Tony de Zorzi, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Dane Paterson, Kagiso Rabada, Tristan Stubbs, Ryan Rickelton and Kyle Verreynne

[Cricinfo]

Former Minister of Education Dr Susil Premajayantha was appointed as the founding President of the National Committee of ‘The Center of Russian Geographical Society in Sri Lanka’. Dr Saman Weerasinghe was appointed as the Chairman and Buddhapriya Ramanayake was appointed as the Secretary General.

‘The Center of Russian Geographical Society in Sri Lanka’ was inaugurated at a forum convened at the Russian House in Colombo on Tuesday [19] themed ‘Under one sun; Russia – Sri Lanka People’s Diplomacy  Culture’

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and to the Republic of  Maldives Levan S. Dzhagaryan, Minister of Labour  Prof. Anil Jayantha Fernando, former Minister Dr Ramesh Pathirana, First Secretary of the Russian Embassy and Director of the Russian House in Colombo  Ms Maria Popova and a distinguished gathering of invitees were present at the launch.

The inaugural National Committee of ‘The Center of Russian Geographical Society in Sri Lanka’:

PRESIDENT: Dr Susil Premajayantha

CHAIRMAN: Dr Saman Weerasinghe

SECRETARY GENERAL: Buddhapriya Ramanayake

BOARD MEMBERS: Ven Dr Pallekande Rathnasara
Dr Ranjana Senasinghe
Dr Kumar Wickremesinghe
Professor S M Mohamed Ismail

Weather Information Bulletin issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre issued at 06.00 p.m. on 19 November 2024 for the Island and Bay of Bengal Sea area

A low pressure area is likely to form over southeast Bay of Bengal around 23rd November. Thereafter, it is likely to intensify into a depression over southwest Bay of Bengal during subsequent 2 days. The system may intensify further and move near the Eastern coast of Sri Lanka.

Navel and fishing communities, engaging activities in the South-west Bay of Bengal area and the general public, particularly living in the Eastern and Northern provinces are requested to be attentive to the future forecasts and bulletins issued by the Department of Meteorology in this regards.