Bavuma: 'We're not close to where we want to be as a team'

South Africa's ODI squad is "quite far," from where they want to be at the home World Cup in 2027 but have time to get there, according to captain Temba Bavuma.

Despite completing a fifth successive bilateral series win over Australia, South Africa lost the final game by a record margin and still see themselves as a squad in transition.

"You're seeing new faces in the team and that's all part of us being in that exploration phase," Bavuma said after the third ODI in Mackay. "We're getting to understand guys, what roles that they can fulfil within the team and what they bring in from a personality point of view. We have time. There's two years left and we're definitely not close to where we want to be as a team."

Though South Africa only handed out two new caps in the Australia ODIs - to Dewald Brevis and Prenelan Subrayen - they also tried a new opening batting combination in Aiden Markram and Ryan Rickelton, moved Bavuma to No.3, had four different batters in three middle-order roles and played with their combination of allrounders and specialist bowlers with varying degrees of success.

Markram and Rickelton put on a highest stand of 92 in three matches, but their other two scores were 2 and 11 and both are struggling with their play outside offstump. Bavuma played two of the three games with one score over fifty but a strike rate under 90, which could be cause for concern.

In the middle-order, Matthew Breetzke was the standout performer, with two quick half-centuries in two matches before he missed the third with a hamstring concern. Tony de Zorzi looked good, especially off the back foot but gave his wicket away too easily. Similarly, Brevis, who became the holder of South Africa's highest score in T20Is, holed out in all three innings in the ODIs. Still, Brevis is largely regarded as the cream of that crop and Bavuma and the team are enjoying his talent as much as the rest of us.

"It's refreshing watching him kind of go about his business. He's not fazed by anything. What's also quite refreshing is seeing his reaction when he does go out. For him, it's all about, he should have hit the ball harder. Maybe the more experienced guys will be thinking, was that a good decision or not? But there's an exuberance of youth from him," Bavuma said. "The longer he plays, the more he'll start getting a little bit more batsmanship in his game, especially in the longer formats. For now, it's entertaining for not just the fans, but for us within the team as well."

From a bowling perspective, South Africa had obvious match-winners in the two games they won. Keshav Maharaj made his case about his value in white-ball cricket with a first ODI five-for and a series economy rate of 4.64 while Lungi Ngidi showed his seniority in a crafty display of variation in game two. The jury might still be out on which of Corbin Bosch and Wiaan Mulder could be edging ahead, especially as they will be competing for a spot with Marco Jansen and while Nandre Burger showed what he can do, Kwena Maphaka's only game in the series was a baptism of fire.

All these are building blocks which Bavuma sees as markers of what the full construction could look like, when South Africa play to their potential. "As much as we won the series, we felt that we weren't anywhere near our best. So I guess that's exciting as well, to see us when we start playing close to 100%," he said.

They have their first opportunity to improve in just over a week when they begin a three-match series against England, where Bavuma expects, "a lot more balls to go flying," and South Africa to keep developing their skills in different conditions. While Cairns and Mackay both heavily suited the team batting first as the ball moved significantly under lights, the way South Africa adapted to the surfaces was the most pleasing thing about the trip for Bavuma.

"That we can win away from home - that's a big thing," he said. "In terms of what we're trying to build and achieve as a team, we want to keep building on that winning habit, in whatever format it is. We want every opportunity to keep our standard up, from a skill point of view."

He acknowledged South Africa were severely lacking in the third game, where the bowlers conceded 431 runs and lacked the problem-solving ability that could have limited the damage. "From a control point of view, that definitely wasn't there. When they put us under pressure, we weren't able to come up with any type of solution. It is a learning curve, not just for the younger guys, but for even the batters. It's not every day where you get to where you're chasing 432. So to be able to come up with some type of formula, that's something that we kind of need to get to terms with."