Temba Bavuma’s performance in the Test series against Sri Lanka was simply put, world-class, and hopefully, it has silenced his haters for good.

There is always a lot of noise around Temba Bavuma, whether he performs or he doesn’t. On some occasions when he scores a half-century we hear that it should have been a hundred. When he scores a century then his conversion rate is mentioned or his overall average of 36.9. If he is amongst the contributors towards a victory, very seldom is his performance highlighted as match-defining or match-winning.

What haters have always failed to reveal is his Bavuma’s recent form. The first 5 years of his career was a bit inconsistent and is essentially what has brought his overall average down but in the second half of his career – the last 5 years – Bavuma has played 40 innings, and averaged 47.55, scoring three centuries and 11 half-centuries.

Against Sri Lanka, in a must-win series, there was no doubt about who was the key batter in the series.

The Proteas skipper was outstanding. He scored 327 runs at an average of 81.75. This included 113 and 70 in the first match, coupled with 66 and 78 in the second Test. Every innings that South Africa went out to bat, he contributed with a milestone. This is the definition of a captain’s performance.

What can haters say now? Nothing? Well, he had a response to them in his post-match press conference.

“It only takes one or two games for things to change. Look I mean I haven’t been in action for the last couple of months so I’m not too sure what the noise would have been about,” said Bavuma.

“I think for me my focus is always on myself and the team and what I can do from that perspective.

“I think the longer you play you accept that as much as you do well there will be people who I guess are not so happy that you doing well, if I can put it that way. They’re kind of waiting for the opportunity to say what they want to say and I guess us as Sportsmen through our performances [we try] to make sure that we don’t give them that opportunity.

“I mean I’m not a vocal person. I believe in letting your bat do the talking or if you’re a bowler let the ball do the talking and I don’t think that will ever change. So I guess the silence being there, I guess it’s a good thing maybe it’s not so much of a good thing for the people who want something to write about. But for me, I’ll continue to focus on myself and the team and what we would like to achieve.”

There is no doubt about his importance to the Proteas Test set-up, and hopefully, everyone realises that now.