South Africa will wait until the latest possible moment to make a final decision on Kagiso Rabada‘s fitness for the first Test against Australia. Rabada sustained a hamstring injury during winter training and his participation in the series opener at Durban from October 9 to 13 remained uncertain as the squad prepared for the challenge.
Batting coach Ashwell Prince provided an update on Rabada’s recovery after the player featured in a two-day intra-squad match held on October 5 and 6. The assessment came as South Africa finalised preparations for the opening Test at Hollywoodbets Kingsmead Stadium.
“He came through quite nicely and bowled really well. He’ll continue to be involved in training over the next few days leading up to the match. From the bowler’s point of view, domestically there’s T20 cricket going on at the moment so we feel that they’ll be better served here, where they will bowl more red balls in training. And if they’re not in the Test lineup, then they can continue bowling during the Test match in the nets, just to get the loads up,” said Prince as quoted by Cricinfo.
“Fair to say that he’s obviously not going to be at 100% straight away, but he is looking good. He will train with the squad for the rest of the week and we will leave a call to be made as late as possible,” he added.
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South Africa are also keeping their batting line-up under wraps, with Prince confirming that he has a good idea of who will make up the top six but can’t divulge it. When asked whether Tristan Stubbs, Wiaan Mulder or David Bedingham could slot in at No. 3, Prince also named uncapped batter Marques Ackerman as a candidate, further raising the possibility of him making his Test debut on his home ground.
“He’s obviously played really well in that position (No. 3) as well, and can bat in that position. We have a very good idea of who’s going to slot in there. I’ve always been a fan of his. And to his credit, he’s done what any player who wants to play Test cricket needs to do: bang the door down by weight of runs. He’s an attacking player. He likes to move the game along. He’s played very well, he’s got a lot of experience and there’s an appetite, not just for him but for a lot of players within our domestic structures to want to be involved in the Test squad,” Prince concluded.
