Proteas captain Temba Bavuma 'being built up' for home series against Australia

Bavuma, the Proteas Test and ODI captain, has not played any cricket since taking part in the newly-formed EUT20 franchise league in league, while he not pulled on a national shirt since December.

The 36-year-old was not selected in the Proteas' squad for the white-ball tour to Namibia but will play for his domestic team, the Lions, in pre-season matches ahead of the home season.

The Proteas have a busy home schedule to look forward to with Australia, Bangladesh and England, and Conrad wants his skipper to fit and firing especially on home soil.

"Temba's good. He's all good. He's obviously being built up. He's all good on the injury front," Conrad told the media.

"He's going to be playing some warm-up games for the Lions as they build up to the season. And I think that will be a slightly longer format.

"Temba's going to be playing a lot of their warm-up games. Temba's big mission is obviously, or rather our big mission, is the ODI series against Australia.

"But more importantly, the Test series against Australia and, as we build the summer, all the Tests are the priority. And we need to make sure that not only Temba, but all of our players are primed for that.

"So I'm very comfortable where Tembs is at. And yeah, we'll definitely see him take the field for that first ODI against Australia."

Bavuma led the Proteas to the World Test Championship trophy in June last year and then, after recovering from a hamstring injury, achieved historic success with a Test victory in India in December.

Conrad knows how valuable Bavuma will be for both the Test and 50-over formats, with a 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa to look forward to.