South African captain Faf du Plessis has revealed that he and the team management had tried to stop ace fast baller Kagiso Rabada from playing this season of the IPL. This, he said, was strongly recommended in order to keep Rabada fresh for this World Cup.
Hanging from the thread of ambiguity for 18 days since they lost a third straight fixture, South Africa’s fate was finally sealed against a resurgent Pakistan who put up a backs-to-the-wall performance riding on Comeback Kid Haris Sohail’s sublime 89.
Du Plessis’ disclosure came soon after his team’s defeat and in response to a question on whether Rabada’s unmissable lack of potency on field was down to fatigue. The fast bowler after all, has bowled 303 overs in all competitions since the start of the year, 47 of which came at the IPL.
Team captain Plessis admitted that there have been fair amount of considerations to get Rabada back home midway to allow him to rest – which wasn’t to be – since the fast pacer was in India till the end of April. During his stint, Rabada bagged 25 wickets at 14.72 from 12 games for Delhi Capitals.
“I don’t think we’ll ever have a perfect answer for that because he’s probably biting on too much,” du Plessis said on Sunday. “But we did try and get him not to go to the IPL; to try and stay and get fresh. That wasn’t the case of — and then when he went there, we were like, let’s try and get him back halfway through the IPL because it’s important, not just for him, but a few other players.
After picking up a back injury during the tournament, he was eventually withdrawn by Cricket South Africa as a precautionary step.
Plessis said that he flagged the issue even before IPL started because three-format players end up playing perennially, without any scope for resting and often at the cost of personal well-being
“So I don’t think it’s not necessarily just the IPL, but it was important for a few guys to rest; and the fact that they didn’t meant that they — you know, they came into the tournament not fresh. That’s not an excuse; that’s just a fact. And KG is — you can see that his pace is probably a little bit down from where he normally is,” he added.
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