Gqeberha: South Africa speedster Kagiso Rabada, in line to play his first competitive game since the IPL final during the second Test against Australia, stressed on the importance of the game, saying that "there is no game or two" for him to ease in, with a home series and World Test Championship points at stake.
Playing his first Test in 12 months since the Rawalpindi Test against Pakistan last year and his first competitive game since IPL final after being out due to a hamstring injury suffered during the winter training, Rabada is eyeing to renew his battle against the Aussies, knowing that he does not have the luxury of easing his way back in.
"I do not have a game or two. We are one-nil down. There is no game or two," Rabada said in Gqeberha as quoted by Cricinfo.
With the series and WTC points at stake, Rabada, the leader of the Proteas attack, is not letting everything consume him and wants to "let the game take him".
"I just like to let the game take me. Obviously, I know what I want to do, but the emotions that I am going to feel, I do not know," Rabada said.
"Right now, I feel ready. I feel confident. But it is sport. There is always some mystery in sport. You do not know if you are going to win or you are going to lose. But I also do not want to give too many inches. I know what it means for me, and that is going there and giving my best and trying to get those Australian batters out. And for us to perform as a collective. And then, you just kind of let the game take you," he said.
Rabada's injuries were one of six hamstring niggles to have affected the Proteas ahead of the series, with Lungi Ngidi, Kwena Maphaka, Ottneil Baartman, Lutho Sipamla and batter Tony de Zorzi yet to return. The veteran pacer said that he did not feel "extremely dysfunctional" due to his injury and for him, it was about getting match-fit to play his cricket with full intensity and prevent any recurrence of the injury.
"I did not feel extremely dysfunctional or whatever. It was more about getting it to heal so that I can play at full intensity and not to prolong or keep reoccurring," he said. "That the main focus of getting back. It is a long cricket summer and lots of cricket to be played. The timing of it was not too bad if you ask me.I was not distraught or it was just a bit of a flag to say, how am I keeping up with conditioning my body? What sort of changes do I need to make to try and mitigate the risk of injury? And yeah, just looking at it from a holistic perspective," he added.
On the demands of the cricketing calendar and paying attention to his conditioning, keeping that in mind, he said, "There is a lot of research that goes into it, especially these days when you're playing so much cricket and at a high intensity. The older you get as well, the more you're going to have to train because your body slows down a lot more. And the more you have to look into the one-percenters of how you're going to recover. There has to be a great deal of work done off the field so that you can perform on the field. And then all the other stuff, like recovery, diet. These days, everything is so scientific. You try to be perfect, but you're not going to be obviously. It is just about weighing up all those one-percenters and seeing how much you can actually do to prevent injury."
At Durban, as the first Test happened on one side, he was bowling off two pacers and was back to bowling his full intensity on Friday at Gqeberha. Rabada is now clear and most importantly, ready to play a match he says the team as a whole "understand the magnitude of.". But at the same time, he is not looking too far ahead and taking things a step at a time.
"At the same time, they need to keep perspective. You do not want to look too far ahead, otherwise you will drive yourself crazy. You just want to take it one step at a time. Of course, we understand the magnitude of this game, but it is not about letting it control you. It is just realising what is in front of us. If you do not get a kick out of it, then maybe it is time to retire and hang the boots up. There is definitely an urge to want to go and play and give it our best shot," he signed off.