South Africa have been given an enormous injury boost on Saturday as premier pacers Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi turned up for a coaching session at SuperSport Park in Centurion. The tempo duo was uncertain for the Boxing Day Test match against India however bowled at full steam in a significant boost for the hosts.Â
Centurion’s pitch favours tempo bowlers and Rabada-Ngidi’s return to nets will amplify the Proteas bowling assault. Rabada was given the remainder from the white-ball collection against India on account of a heel niggle whereas Ngidi missed the T20I collection on account of a left ankle injury.
The Proteas’ head coach Shukri Conrad confirmed that each bowlers are firing within the coaching session and are recent for the Centurion Test. However, Conrad added that the ultimate resolution on Rabada and Ngidi’s involvement might be taken on Sunday morning.Â
“Rabada and Ngidi will be fresh and firing, I am always a firm believer of freshness,” Shukri Conrad informed reporters at SuperSport ahead of a coaching session on Saturday. “It would have been ideal had they got some mileage in the legs by playing first-class matches but that’s life. You have got to find a way. But I am not bothered that they will be undercooked for the game. KG (Rabada) and Lungi are still in the 15-member squad and available for selection. We will make that decision tomorrow. Hopefully, tomorrow morning we will have a full squad of 15 to select from.”Â
Meanwhile, the Indian workforce might be with out their premier pacer Mohammed Shami and younger batter Ruturaj Gaikwad on account of completely different injury points. India have by no means gained a Test collection in South Africa and have triumphed in solely 4 of 23 red-ball matches within the Rainbow Nation.
However, the Indian workforce will enter this collection as favourites having dominated Test cricket within the final two years and are ranked no.1 within the ICC workforce’s chart throughout all codecs. Conrad acknowledged India’s current spectacular kind in Tests however tipped the hosts to triumph on account of India’s poor kind in South Africa.
“If it was ever possible to make the series ever bigger then that makes it even bigger that India have never won a Test series here. We certainly want to hold that proud record and make sure it doesn’t happen,” Shukri Conrad added.
South Africa Test squad: Temba Bavuma (c), David Bedingham, Nandre Burger, Gerald Coetzee, Tony de Zorzi, Dean Elgar, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Keegan Petersen, Kagiso Rabada, Tristan Stubbs (wk), Kyle Verreynne (wk)
