At the start of 2025, South Africa coach Shukri Conrad encouraged his team to "just dream a bit" because "some of the best things happen in dreams" and they ran with it. They had already qualified for the World Test Championship final and dreamt of winning it. But even after that, even in their wildest dreams, they didn't go as far as thinking they would sweep a series in India, nevermind subject them to their worst home defeat. That was something they only believed when it became reality.
"Coming here, I would never have thought 2-0 would be the result of the series," Temba Bavuma, South Africa's still-undefeated captain, said at the post-match press conference. "What makes it sweeter is the fact that we've been on the other side of the result, so we know how dark it can be. It's an incredible achievement for the group of players. Again, we've gone on to paint ourselves in history and we are creating some memorable moments."
The last time South Africa won a Test series in India was a quarter of a century ago, when Bavuma was a boy and two of his squad - both of whom made series-swaying contributions - Marco Jansen and Tristan Stubbs were not even born. To say that South Africa went into the India series with players who had mostly bad baggage or others who carried none at all is accurate.
Those things combined to deepen their resolve to give as good an account of themselves as they could, especially as mace holders with a reputation to upkeep. Under Conrad, and with their first-choice side available, South Africa have not lost a series (their only defeat was to New Zealand in 2024 with an understrength squad) and Bavuma holds the record for the most Test wins as captain before a loss (ten before Guwahati, 11 in 12 Tests after). Against an Indian side in transition, South Africa fancied their chances but they didn't fancy them this much.
"I would have never confidently thought we'd walk away with a 2-0 series win and maybe that apprehension would have forced us to bring a higher level of intensity in our play," Bavuma said. "But also in our preparation, we made sure that no stone went unturned."
Apart from a helpful FTP, which saw South Africa tour Pakistan the month before heading to India, they also sent an A team, which Bauvma was part of, as an advance party for this series. That team played two four-day matches, albeit on benign surfaces in Bengaluru but against some of the Indian first-choice attack. The spoils were shared 1-1 and included South Africa A successfully chasing 417 in the second match, a sign that anything is possible. Bavuma scored 59 runs in the chase, which he described as the start of his uplevelling to meet the squad's standards.
"The boys were in Pakistan and they got a proper taste and sense of what's to come in subcontinental conditions, so the guys came in ready," Bavuma said. "For me, it was a case of getting up to speed with the guys having been out with injury. But coming back into the team, I felt as if the guys were at a higher level and the onus was more on me to up my game."
Bavuma missed both South Africa's previous Test tours to the subcontinent through injury. He had an elbow injury last year when they beat Bangladesh 2-0 and a calf niggle sustained in a white-ball series in England kept him out of the Pakistan Tests. Despite those absences, there has never been any doubt that it is his South African team, with Conrad calling him both their best batter and their leader. And it's clear that he is received that way. Bavuma received a standing ovation at Eden Gardens and was well celebrated in Guwahati and appears to have taken ownership of the job fully. He called his ascendency "a process of discovery" that has come from being "a lot more assured of myself as a person and as a captain and of what I'm trying to do out there".
Two and a half years into the job of Test captain, and with the experience of the white-ball leadership under his belt, Bavuma's biggest lesson is the ability to delegate so that he does not carry all the responsibility on his own. "We have a lot of leaders within the team and it's understanding where certain guys provide value and allowing them to flourish within that space," he said. "I've got your Keshav [Maharaj], I've got Aiden [Markram], I've got your KG [Rabada] even though he wasn't there this time. From a tactical point of view, those are the guys, I can always bounce ideas around. I set that vision clear, but there's other guys who help me make sure that we're all on the same page."
The other thing he has learnt to do is "separate the captain and the batter" and to ensure that he can be picked on the latter alone. "It's important that you do your primary skill as well as you can," he said. "Guys generally follow what they see, not necessarily what you tell them. I try to ensure that from a batting point of view, I'm contributing as much as I can to the team."