Rabada ruled out as South Africa turns to 2 spinners for first cricket test vs Australia

DURBAN: Fast bowler Kagiso Rabada was officially out and world champion South Africa confirmed it was fielding two spinners against Australia in the first cricket test at Kingsmead on Friday.

Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer have been paired at a venue which has favored spin in recent years. They last played together in South Africa's last test last November, a 408-run win in Guwahati that clinched a first series win in India in 25 years.

Rabada was given as long as possible to recover from a hamstring injury. He has not played an official match since May in the Indian Premier League.

Captain Temba Bavuma would not say on Thursday whether his best seamer would be available for the last two tests.

“We did go the conservative route and give him a couple of extra days to get as close as he can be to 100% fitness,” Bavuma said. “As soon as he gets that green light we expect him to be within that starting lineup.”

In Rabada's absence, Anrich Nortje will play his first test since March 2023. He and Marco Jansen lead the pace attack with allrounder Wiaan Mulder the third seamer.

Nortje has limited his cricket diet to mainly Twenty20s in recent years but he said he's been training for a while with a red ball under the eye of national bowling coach Piet Botha to increase his workload.

“He's X-factor,” Bavuma said. “There's not many guys around who are bowling 150-plus (mph).”

South Africa will field nine of the XI that beat Australia when they last met in the World Test Championship final at Lord's in June last year. Australia lead the current WTC cycle. South Africa is second.

Australia captain Pat Cummins declined to say whether they will go with two spinners as well. Coach Andrew McDonald has said they would need a "compelling" reason to do so.

Australia looks set to play the same bowlers — Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon — from the infamous Sandpapergate scandal in 2018 when it last played a test in the republic. Cameron Bancroft was caught on TV applying sandpaper to the ball and he, captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner served long suspensions.

“As a group we've moved on,” Cummins said on Thursday. “(I am) very happy with the last eight or nine years, how we've been as a group and evolved.”

South Africa:

Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, David Bedingham, Temba Bavuma (captain), Tristan Stubbs, Wiaan Mulder, Kyle Verreynne, Marco Jansen, Simon Harmer, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje.