Rabada has a grade-three hamstring tear, and Donald says he will miss all three Australia Tests
Cricket South Africa have ruled Kagiso Rabada out of the ODI series against Australia and left his Test place open. His own franchise bowling coach thinks that call has already been made for them.
Aug 31, 2026
Kagiso Rabada will not bowl a ball against Australia this September. Cricket South Africa confirmed on Sunday that their fast bowler is out of the three-match ODI series beginning at Kingsmead on 24 September, with a right hamstring injury that has him in the early stages of rehabilitation under the board’s medical staff.
On the Test series that follows, the board kept its options open. “His availability for the Test series against Australia will depend on how he progresses through his rehabilitation, with a decision on his selection to be made closer to the series,” CSA said.
Allan Donald does not think there is much left to decide.
Nine or ten weeks, says Donald
Donald coaches the bowlers at the Lions, Rabada’s franchise, which puts him nearer the medical file than most people talking about this. He put the injury at a grade-three tear of the right hamstring and the layoff at nine or ten weeks. “He’s going to be out for all the Aussie Tests as well,” he said.
The calendar backs him up. The first Test starts at Kingsmead on 9 October, the second at St George’s Park in Gqeberha on 18 October, the third at Newlands on 27 October. A ten-week absence swallows the lot. Even the optimistic end of Donald’s range has him walking into the series off no cricket at all.
Rabada tore the hamstring in training, during the winter conditioning block that was supposed to get him ready for exactly this. The Lions had him pencilled in for the opening round of the four-day competition on 10 September, against Boland. He will miss that too, which removes the one obvious route back to match fitness before the Tests.
What South Africa are losing
Rabada is 31 and has 340 wickets from 73 Tests at 22.04. Narrow it to Australia and the numbers get better: 58 wickets in 11 matches at 21.39.
He was also the bowler who took nine wickets at Lord’s in June 2025, when South Africa beat Australia by five wickets to win the World Test Championship and ended a 27-year wait for a senior ICC title. Australia arrive in October with that result still on the books. South Africa were hoping to face them with the same attack.
Who bowls in his place
Gerald Coetzee is the name selectors will look at first. He has spent August with South Africa A against Bangladesh A, which is the sort of uninterrupted workload nobody has been able to get out of him for two years. Kwena Maphaka and Corbin Bosch are the other seamers in range. Nandre Burger, who would have been a straightforward answer, is still working back from a stress fracture in his back.
That leaves a pace group picked more on availability than on form, against a batting side that has spent the cycle scoring heavily.
The championship maths
These three Tests sit inside the 2025-27 World Test Championship, and the two teams playing them are the top two in it. South Africa are second on 75.00 per cent. Australia are first. Three Tests between the top two is the swing series of the cycle, and South Africa may have to play it without the bowler who won them the last final.
Rabada’s rehab continues under CSA supervision, and the board will name its Test squad closer to 9 October. Donald has already said what he expects that squad to look like.