South Africa captain Temba Bavuma has been ruled out of the fifth and final T20I against India with an injury he sustained during the fourth fixture in Rajkot. The Proteas captain initially got hit on his shoulder on a Bhuvneshwar Kumar delivery and later injured himself while diving at the non-striker's end. Bavuma walked off the field and could not come out to bat again.
With the final T20I starting less than 48 hours after that incident, his availability for the game was always in doubt. However, minutes before the toss it was confirmed that Bavuma won't be playing this match. Keshav Maharaj was confirmed to lead the touring team in the series decider with both teams having won 2 games each.
As it turned out, the final T20I was called off due to rain. While initially the match was reduced to 19 overs a side, rain interrupted again when India were 28/2 in 3.3 overs and made no further play possible.
"Very disappointed we didn't get a full game for the end of an exciting tour. We started pretty well, pity we could not see the outcome. We can't control the weather. We tried a few combinations. Still a work in progress for Australia. You may still see changes. I am sure the future series against India will be interesting like this one. We were disappointed with our performance in the last two games. We carried our confidence from past tours at the same time we didn't want to take anything for granted," stand-in Proteas captain Bavuma said after the final T20I.
Meanwhile, Indian skipper Rishabh Pant rated India's character of coming from 0-2 down to level the series 2-2 as a great positive for the Men in Blue.