Batting coach Lance Klusener is confident Test-match cricketer Temba Bavuma will add value to the Proteas squad during this month’s T20I series against India.

Bavuma has collected 36 Tests, but just two ODIs, during a five-year international career. Those two ODIs, though, yielded a century against Ireland and a near half-ton against Bangladesh.

‘He is not the biggest guy, who can muscle the ball over the fence, but there are different ways of doing it. I am uncomfortable saying he is a red-ball cricketer. He has played two ODIs with a hundred and a near 50, so he is a good cricketer,’ said Klusener.

Bavuma is one of four players uncapped at T20I level in the squad. The others are all-rounder George Linde, spinner Bjorn Fortuin and fast bowler Anrich Nortje.

‘Temba will certainly get his opportunity on this tour and I think he is ready to make the transition into being somebody in that engine room, who can be good at rotating strike and have good plans so that other hitters like David Miller, Dwaine Pretorius and Andile Phehlukwayo, some of the biggest hitters on the planet, can bat around him,’ added Klusener.

Sunday’s series opener in Dharamsala was washed out without a delivery bowled. The second T20I will be played in Mohali on Wednesday.

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