SA skipper demands all-round improvement but rain threatens second Australia Test

Kagiso Rabada will bring his “main character energy” to the second Test for a Proteas team badly in need of a boost following a chastening opening to the high-profile series with Australia.

Although captain Temba Bavuma didn’t name a starting team yesterday as he usually does on the eve of a Test, he confirmed that Rabada had been “released by the fitness team”, and is “available for selection”.

Bavuma, like his Australian counterpart Pat Cummins, is waiting to see exactly what the weather holds and the impact that will have on the pitch before deciding on the final XI. Rain has been forecast for Gqeberha for today and tomorrow.

Rabada could have played in Durban, but the Proteas adopted a circumspect approach, putting him on ice, with a view not only to the remainder of this series but five more Tests this summer, including another hugely anticipated contest with England.

He was certainly missed, especially in the first innings at Kingsmead, when South Africa let slip a huge advantage with Australia on 124/6.

Getting key dismissal

Writing in the Betway Blog, former Proteas captain Graeme Smith said that had Rabada played, Australia wouldn’t have been so easily let off the hook. “You can’t see them at 124/6 getting to 390 if he’s in the lineup, as he’s getting that key dismissal,” he wrote.

Rabada saves his best for Australia. He’s happy to get in their faces — famously overstepping the mark eight years ago at St George’s Park — and has produced match-winning performances in Perth in 2016, Gqeberha in 2018 and last year at Lord’s in the World Test championship final. In 11 Tests he’s taken 58 wickets at 21.39 against them.

“He leads the attack in everything that he does. I think it brings an extra level of confidence to the unit,” Bavuma said.

It’s not only the bowlers but the batters too. Rabada is the one player in the current Proteas team that would challenge for a spot in an all-time South Africa XI. When he took his 300th Test wicket two years ago, it was a moment his teammates lapped up, and were happy to share in what Bavuma called Rabada’s “aura”.

“There’s a lot of belief in KG. A lot of the guys feed off that.”

Rabada’s self-belief

There’s no concern that Rabada can’t manage the expectation that there will be one of them in the next few days. No other cricketer in South Africa operates with the same level of self-belief, and while Bavuma expects an improved showing, especially from the batters, everyone will be dragged along by Rabada’s wake.

The watchword for the Proteas batters this week has been — patience. It had been the goal last week too, when they talked of putting miles into the legs of the Australian bowlers, and when they didn’t, it proved extremely costly. David Bedingham said that policy had been stressed even more emphatically in the last few days, with Aiden Markram’s second innings in Durban offering a blueprint for the others.

I’ve played with Rickleton at the Lions as well. He’s going through a phase, whatever you want to call it; we’ve all been through that phase, where you just want to try and get on the other side of it.

“It’s more about just extending our batting innings and being a lot more ruthless in how we execute,” Bavuma explained.

There was certainly a ruthless streak about how Tristan Stubbs was axed from the squad for the second Test and then the early confirmation that Kyle Verreynne would not start either, with Ryan Rickleton set to keep.

Proteas must get better

Those decisions would have sent a jolt through all the players. “There have been conversations in both departments, batting and bowling. The simple thing is that we just need to get better,” Bavuma said.

There was no clarity about who would open the innings alongside Markram, with both Marques Ackerman, who will make his Test debut, and Matthew Breetzke capable of doing so. Breetzke played there in his last Test against Zimbabwe in 2025, and despite not having opened for his home province, the Warriors, in recent seasons, he has done so 59 times in his first-class career.

Ackerman’s success in the last few seasons has come at No 3 and No 4 in the order, and it would be a surprise were he to open, with the No 5 slot available after Stubbs’s axing. It will mean Rickelton slotting in down the order at either No 6 or No 7, where he will need to also find form, having scored just one half-century in his last 12 Test innings.

“We’re confident in his ability,” said Bavuma, pointing to the 30-year old’s hundred at St George’s Park against Sri Lanka two years ago as proof.

“I’ve played with Rickleton at the Lions as well. He’s going through a phase, whatever you want to call it; we’ve all been through that phase, where you just want to try and get on the other side of it. So yeah, we’re very hopeful. He’s got 14 players that are behind him.”