South Africa’s pace-bowling spearhead Kagiso Rabada is facing a race against time to recover for the home Test series against Australia. After being ruled out of the ODI series, an official word on Rabada’s rehabilitation was awaited. South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad has given a huge update on Rabada's fitness. He says that it will be a surprise to him if the veteran pacer misses the Test series.
"It's going quite nicely, the rehab and the programs that he's on. I'd be very surprised if we didn't see him during the Test series," Conrad told ICC.
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"He's such a huge player for us, but he seems to reserve his best for Australia. So I'm pretty confident that we'll see KG (Rabada). There's still a little bit of work to be done."
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However, Conrad also revealed that a final call on Rabada's participation in the series will be taken later this week. He believes that the pacer recovers faster than others but the medical team will have the final say on whether he gets the green light to play.
The current World Test Championship (WTC) champions have proved of late that they can win despite absence of key players. While Conrad understands that Rabada is not easily replaceable, South Africa have plenty of bench strength if he misses out unfortunately.
The Test series begins on October 9 at Kingsmead, Durban. The second and third Tests will be played in Gqeberha and Cape Town starting on October 18 and 27 respectively.
Rabada’s chance to take over Steyn
Rabada is currently South Africa's third-highest wicket-taker against Australia in Tests. From just 11 Tests, he has 58 wickets against the Kangaroos at an average of 21.39, featuring four fifers and five four-fers. Among South Africans, he is only behind Hugh Tayfield (64 wickets from 15 Tests) and Dale Steyn (70 wickets from 15 Tests).
Australia’s Test squad vs South Africa -
Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster.