In the first Test against India at the Eden Gardens, stump microphones picked up Jasprit Bumrah making an off-hand remark about Temba Bavuma—“bauna bhi toh hai”—while discussing a DRS call. On the surface, it may have seemed like yet another instance of harmless on-field chatter, the kind cricket has always been full of. But for Bavuma, who has spent his entire life pushing back against reductive labels—height, race, quota—such comments can be a source of an ontological rupture. They reflect a long history of being defined by everything except his cricket.

What makes Bavuma’s story remarkable is not the prejudice he has faced, but the dignity with which he has risen above it. To understand the man, one must understand the journey: a journey marked by resilience, self-belief, and a refusal to be boxed in by other people’s expectations. If there is one thing Bavuma has taught the cricketing world, it is that when the chips are down, character—not commentary—defines a........

© Free Press Journal