Whenever we talk about Kagiso Rabada, we remember his 9 wickets over the two innings he took in the famous ICC World Test Championship 2023-25 triumph for Temba Bavuma and his team. Kagiso Rabada, with his lethal accuracy and pace, was deadly accurate in dismantling the Australian batters. However, as always, it has been with his career that has been marred by injuries that have made Kagiso Rabada miss most of the cricket action on the field, the most recent being the 1st Test vs Australia at Kingsmead, Durban on 9th October 2026.
For cricket lovers, stats suggest that Kagiso Rabada has enjoyed solid success in his red-ball cricket, having captured as many as 340 wickets for South Africa in 73 Tests at an avg economy of 22.0, which is great for the fast bowler. However, injuries marred his steady progress throughout his enterprising career.
Kagiso Rabada’s tryst with injuries
Kagiso Rabada, the potent fast bowler of South Africa, has often been subjected to injuries in his lifetime. The most recent was a hamstring injury he suffered during his preparation for the WTC cycle. Last time Kagiso Rabada suffred from an injury it was back in 2025 when he injured his rib during the test series vs India which South Africa won 2-0. However, he recovered from that and played vs Pakistan in October 2025 and played a huge part in a series leveller 1-1 where he contributed with the bat too. He continued his play in the T20 World Cup 2026 and IPL 2026 before getting injured again.
This hamstring injury made Kagiso Rabada’s plan to prepare for the Australia series go haywire . Kagiso Rabada did try his best to make a comeback with rigorous drilling exercises or even playing a domestic match over the course of recovery, but couldn’t recover in time as a result of which he was dropped from the 1st Test vs Australia at Durban.
Kagiso Rabada set to miss out from 1st Test vs Australia
The latest addition to the long injury list hovering during the Australia -South Africa series is Kagiso Rabada, who failed just in time to recover from his hamstring injury and is being kept out of the 1st Test vs Australia. Speaking about the recovery path, Kagiso Rabada actively took part in the drills and bowled a few overs in the nets for South Africa as he was named in a 30-man preliminary squad. However, when his speed was registered, it was below the desired requirement, which made South Africa decide that they might not rush in for inclusion of Kagiso Rabada .
Skipper Temba Bavuma, who was hopeful that Kagiso Rabada could be available at the last moment for the team, expressed his disappointment regarding the same but assured that his fitness being 100% is the topmost priority for South Africa considering a long 8-Test match home stretch. He said :
“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,”
“We’re confident in our medical team to get him to the place where we need him to be, but they haven’t officially handed over Kagiso, if I could put it that way,”
“He’s under their control. Obviously for us, as soon as he gets the green light, we expect him to be within that starting line-up.”
Kagiso Rabada’s injury however turned out to be blessing in disguise for Anrich Nortje who marked his return back to the South Africa test side after 2023 and would love with his sheer pace stamp the authority over the Australians when the 1st Test start. However with Kagiso Rabada after missing the 1st Test at Kingsmead Durban o 9th October has the task cut out as he is with the team working on his fitness ready to be fit before the 2nd test at Qberha on 18th October hoping South Africa goes into it with an enthralling 1-0 lead.
South Africa Playing XI for 1st Test vs Australia: Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, David Bedingham, Temba Bavuma (c), Tristan Stubbs, Wiaan Mulder, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Simon Harmer, Anrich Nortje
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