Temba Bavuma Overtakes Rohit Sharma In WTC Captaincy Record

Mayank

Temba Bavuma led South Africa to a 2-1 series win vs Australia [Source: AFP]

Captain Temba Bavuma further improved his captaincy record with South Africa's series win over Australia at home, claiming the series decider on the final day. With this, he won his 13th Test as skipper, losing only one since he took over.

The last day of the series drew plenty of attention, with the game well-poised and all three results possible. Temba Bavuma led his team brilliantly and left Australia no chance to pull off something special at the scenic Newlands.

Captain Temba Bavuma goes past Rohit Sharma's WTC win tally

Bavuma backed it up by another win in Cape Town to make it 13 wins and 1 draw in 15 Tests. He led the team masterfully with proactive bowling changes and attacking field settings.

South Africa notably also climbed up the rankings to become the number 1 Test team in the world, and with the win, Bavuma went past Rohit Sharma's win tally as captain in the WTC. Rohit Sharma, who last led India against Australia in the 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, won 12 of his 24 matches as captain in the WTC.

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Most wins as captain in WTC

26 - Pat Cummins (60.46%)
21 - Ben Stokes (52.50%)
15 - Joe Root (41.66%)
14 - Virat Kohli (63.63%)
13 - Temba Bavuma (86.66%)
12 - Rohit Sharma (50.00%)
11 - Tom Latham (55.00%)

Furthermore, this was Bavuma's third win over Australia's World Test Championship-winning captain Pat Cummins, including the 2025 final at the Lord's. This is also the most by any captain against Cummins.

Most Test Wins vs Pat Cummins

Captain	Matches Won	Total Matches
Temba Bavuma	3	4
Rohit Sharma	2	6
Ben Stokes	2	6
Jasprit Bumrah	1	2
Dimuth Karunaratne	1	2
Kraigg Brathwaite	1	3
Najmul Hossain Shanto	1	2

(Captains with best win record vs Pat Cummins in Tests)

South Africa eye back-to-back WTC finals

The defending World Test Championship champions, with the 2-1 series win over the two-time finalists, Australia, have now broken into the top-2 of the points table for the 2025-27 cycle. The Proteas have won five of their 7 matches, including a whitewash over India away from home.

Up next, they will host Bangladesh and England at home to end the calendar year and find themselves in a prime position to reach another final in the summer of 2027.