Spin-bowling allrounder George Linde retained in the one-day unit after being part of the Test squad
In a statement on Tuesday evening, less than 24 hours before the first ODI in Paarl, CSA said Rabada was being released from the squad “due to high workloads over a sustained period of time and the need for him to recover prior the outbound Test series against New Zealand next month”.
Rabada has been playing in biosecure bubbles since early September, when he featured in three ODIs and three T20Is on South Africa’s tour of Sri Lanka. Soon after, he headed over to the second half of IPL 2021 in the UAE, where he played eight games for Delhi Capitals. That tournament ran straight into the T20 World Cup. There was a break of a month and a half following the global tournament, then South Africa’s Tests against India kicked off on Boxing Day.
Now, the ODIs against India finish on January 23, and South Africa are set to leave for New Zealand on February 2, where they will have to undergo between 10 days and two weeks of quarantine. The two Tests against New Zealand start on February 17, and after that South Africa return home for two Tests against Bangladesh in mid-March.
South Africa also have a wealth of seam-bowling allrounders to employ: Wayne Parnell, Dwaine Pretorius and Andile Phehlukwayo can all slot in as the fourth seam-bowling option, should conditions call for that many pace bowlers.
CSA’s statement said: “No replacement will be brought in for [Rabada] as there is an extended squad in place in the Bio-Secure Environment (BSE), but George Linde has been retained from the Test team as an extra spin-bowling option for the series.”