Kagiso Rabada’s SA20 season has started in the treatment room, not the middle. The 31-year-old quick sat out MI Cape Town’s Boxing Day curtain-raiser against Durban’s Super Giants and, according to skipper Rashid Khan, will also skip game two. The hope – Rashid used the word himself – is that Rabada returns for match three on 31 December.
“We’re still ‘hopeful’ he’ll be ready for that one,” Rashid said after the seven-wicket defeat at Newlands.
If the medical team keep that promise, Rabada will have roughly a week – four league fixtures at best – to convince selection convenor Patrick Moroney and head coach Shukri Conrad that he is fit enough for the 15-man squad to the T20 World Cup. The list is scheduled for release in the first half of January; the margin for error is thin.
South Africa have gambled on injured quicks before. Dale Steyn travelled to the 2019 ODI World Cup nursing a shoulder that never healed in time, leaving the attack short of its spearhead. Rabada’s rib complaint is nowhere near as serious, but the anxiety is understandable.
He was last seen in competitive action during October’s Rawalpindi Test victory over Pakistan. Rested for the one-dayers immediately afterwards, Rabada was named in the Test party for India, then scratched on the morning of the first match. He missed everything else on that tour as a precaution.
Those at Newlands said the injury looked minor. Rabada bowled a handful of overs on the practice strip, working with bowling coach Mitchell McClenaghan, and told reporters he felt “fine”. Still, the franchise physios are taking no risks; a cracked or badly bruised rib can flare up again with one awkward follow-through.
The wider fast-bowling group is a touch fragile. Gerald Coetzee skipped Durban’s opener while nursing a pectoral strain but is said to be close. Joburg Super Kings have not yet updated Nandre Burger’s status after the left-armer hobbled out of the India ODIs. On a brighter note, 19-year-old left-armer Kwena Maphaka returned from a hamstring strain and bowled tidily for Super Giants on Friday.
None of this is panic stations – yet. Rabada remains South Africa’s most complete T20 seamer, and if the medical green light arrives he walks straight back in. For the next week, though, every net session and every gentle run-up will be watched with crossed fingers.
