Bavuma, Rabada prep a concern for first India Test
Temba Bavuma and Kagiso Rabada will go into the first Test against India without having played competitive cricket for 40 days after they withdrew from the Central Gauteng Lions team for the four-day game against the Dolphins that starts on Thursday.
The Proteas Test captain has been given time off due to a family bereavement while fast bowler Rabada will miss the match at Kingsmead because of a bruised left heel. Rabada was injured in the World Cup semifinal against Australia on November 16, the last match he and Bavuma played. The 28-yearold will be assessed before the Boxing Day Test at SuperSport Park in Centurion.
It raises concern about the composition of the Proteas attack. Besides Rabada, Lungi Ngidi was also withdrawn from the Proteas T20 squad with an ankle strain and subsequently the Titans team that will also be in action on Thursday.
The young duo of Gerald Coetzee and Marco Jansen are the only members of the fast bowling group who would have had some match timeheading into that Test. Both played in the second T20 International against India in Gqeberha on Tuesday and are due to play for their provinces in this week’s Cricket SA four-day series.
While players have often cited the importance of being mentally fresh, particularly after stressful events such as a World Cup, the danger of losing rhythm, especially when changing from limited overs matches to the Test format, have proved costly in the past.
The most notable example was against India in 2006-07 when most of the SA team that season, having played virtually no cricket for two months, lost the first Test of a three-match series to a Rahul Dravid-led Indian side at the Wanderers.
SA were able to bounce back to win that series 2-1, but this summer’s clash consists of just two matches.
With nearly half the Test squad also present in the ODI group, the rest — barring Bavuma, Rabada and Ngidi — will be participating in this week’s fourday competition.
At Centurion, Coetzee and Jansen will be up against each other when the Northerns Titans face the Warriors. The Eastern Cape side surged to the top of the Division 1 log with a comprehensive victory over the Lions at home last week thanks to an excellent hundred from Tristan Stubbs, who earned a call-up to the Test squad as a result.
The Titans will also have the tournament’s leading run-scorer, Dean Elgar, in their ranks.
Keegan Petersen will be in the Boland Rocks team that faces KwaZulu-Natal Inland in Pietermaritzburg, while Stubbs is due a week off as he participates in the last T20 International on Thursday and thus can’t play for the Warriors.