Concerns about Bavuma and Rabada's preparation 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 both withdrew from the Central Gauteng Lions team for a 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 misses the match at Kingsmead because of a bruised left heel. 

Rabada picked up the injury in the World Cup semifinal against Australia on November 16, the last match he and Bavuma played. The 28-year-old will be assessed before the Boxing Day Test at SuperSport Park in Centurion.

It raises concerns 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 Besides Rabada, Lungi Ngidi was also withdrawn from the Proteas T20 squad with an ankle strain and subsequently the Titans team that will also be in action on Thursday.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 time under their belts heading into that Test. Both played in the second T20 International against India in Gqeberha on Tuesday and are due to play for their respective provinces in this week’s round of the CSA four-day series. 

While players have often over the years 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 proven costly in the past. 

The most notable example was against India in 2006-2007 when most of the South African 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. 

South Africa were able to bounce back to win that series 2-1, but this summer’s clash consists of just two matches and offers no wiggle room to bounce back. 

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 four-day 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, while the batting will be bolstered further by a recall for Neil Brand, who impressed as captain and opener for the South Africa A team in their recent series against West Indies A.

Keegan Petersen, who made a hundred for SA A, 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 at the Wanderers on Thursday and thus can’t play for the Warriors. In the last fixture of the round, Western Province face North West at Newlands. 

After another round of Division 1 fixtures next week, the Four-Day series goes on sabbatical for six weeks as the domestic calendar is consumed by the SA20 tournament that starts on January 10.