Rabada puts himself through the paces as South Africa weigh Test return

October 8, 2026
12:33 am

Kagiso Rabada‘s match readiness appears to be a work in progress as the South African spearhead was put through his paces in a long session at Kingsmead, in Durban. Two days ahead of the first Test against Australia, Rabada did both fitness drills and bowling off an increasingly longer run-up as the hosts commit to leaving it as late as possible to determine his availability for the opening Test.

Rabada was neither part of the initial football warm-ups and catching drills nor did he bowl on the practice pitch at first. Instead, Anrich Nortje, who has not played a Test in more than three years, Marco Jansen and Corbin Bosch were first to bowl, under the watch of head coach Shukri Conrad and bowling coach Piet Botha.

About half an hour later, Rabada emerged to begin his work. He ran between cones, as one would during a fitness test, then spent significant amounts of time stretching and then made his way to the practice pitch. He watched Dane Paterson and Gerald Coetzee before moving to an adjacent surface where he began bowling with Botha acting as wicketkeeper.

Rabada initially bowled off two paces and then moved to nine – with a follow-through – and looked relaxed throughout. His pace looked significantly slower than what we are used to in match situations, which is to be expected considering Rabada has not played a competitive match since the last day in May, at the IPL, and is coming off a significant injury.

He has not played a Test since South Africa’s tour of Pakistan in October last year, and missed the India series with a rib injury. Rabada will doubtless be keen to make an impression in this cycle of the World Test Championship [WTC] after taking nine wickets in the final last June.

Then, Rabada was spoken about as South Africa’s only bona fide superstar in their WTC champions side. Now, the same would apply with one comment overheard at Kingsmead that Rabada is “the only South African player who Australians would know.” Harmer confirmed that, in less crude terms.

Kagiso Rabada going through some fitness drills as we wait to see if he will be in South Africa’s XI for the first Test agains Australia.
“I don’t think we want to risk short-term gain for long term damage,” said Simon Harmer at the presser.
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“Everybody wants him to play. The spectators, us in the change room, the Australians. I obviously don’t know exactly where he’s at,” Simon Harmer, South Africa’s offspinner, who addressed the media on Wednesday, said. “There’ll be a decision made, I’m sure, as close to the game as possible. He’s proved season in, season out that he’s a world-class player and he’s only going to make our team better.”

As much as South Africa would welcome Rabada’s return to the XI, Harmer hinted that they wouldn’t do it at all costs. With eight home Tests between now and early January and ten left in this WTC cycle, South Africa will take a cautious approach and trust the rest of their resources.

“I really hope that he does get in for the first Test, but there’s a lot of cricket this summer and I don’t think we want to risk a short-term game for long-term damage,” Harmer said.

Rabada, and 17 of the other 18 players named in the preliminary squad, will remain part of South Africa’s squad for the Tests. Tony de Zorzi is out of the first match with a hamstring injury. Lungi Ngidi, Kwena Maphaka and Ottneil Baartman have all been ruled out of the series in its entirety as they recover from hamstring concerns of their own.