Temba Bavuma is determined to change perceptions about his ability to perform in the white-ball formats, starting with the T20I series in India. 

The 29-year-old has always been seen as a Test batsman by many, but he changed most of those perceptions last season. 

He played three white-ball tournaments last season for the Lions and Gauteng, and During the Africa T20 Cup 2018/19 he captained Gauteng. 

In the Africa T20 tournament he averaged 53 and had a strike rate of over 158. Gauteng ended up winning that tournament.

In the CSA T20 Challenge, he accumulated 326 runs with a top score of 104 runs. He finished third-highest run-scorer in the tournament with only Rassie van der Dussen and Theunis de Bruyn scoring more runs than him.

Most importantly, as captain, he won the CSA T20 Challenge with the Lions last season.

“Back home, there’s a perception that I’m a red-ball player. I knew at the back of my mind that white-ball cricket is something that I wanted to play,” he said on Friday.

“Fortunately with my good performances in the past season this opportunity has come.

“I’m here now and I’d like to do the most that I can.” 

He now has the opportunity to change perceptions about his ability in the shortest format, after being named in the T20I squad.

“As a player you go through a lot of challenges. There’s a lot of pressure as an International player,” he said. 

“People are quite quick to label you as a certain type of player and that can be a good or bad thing. 

“Proving people wrong is always an extra bit of motivation.” 

Even after scoring an ODI century on debut against Ireland and a 42 in his second ODI innings against Bangladesh in 2017, people still regarded him as a Test batsman.

“For me personally, I don’t take what other people say to heart,” he continued. 

“You’re always going to have people who fight on your side and people who will look to try to bring you down. 

“The last thing you want as an international player is to take all those things to heart. I focus on what I want to achieve. 

“Last year I made a conscious effort to improve my white-ball game,” he added. 

“I tried to play as many T20 games as I could, in amateur cricket and domestic cricket. 

“Those were the goals I set, the things I wanted to achieve not based on what other people were saying. 

“So, I think as an international player where pressure is coming from left, right and centre, you want to be listening to the voice that is in between your ears not all the noise out there” he concluded. 

Bavuma will be hoping to make his T20I debut in Sunday’s clash against India.