SA Bowling Coach Hails Rabada, Feels Paceman Is Getting Back To His Best

“It was fantastic to see him bowl, especially, the spell after lunch. I thought he bowled well in Vizag (Visakhapatnam) as well. Today, there were a lot of signs that he is getting to the top,” Barnes said

South African bowling coach Vincent Barnes was all praises for Proteas front-line seamer Kagiso Rabada after his good showing with the red cherry in the opening Day of the second Test against India at Pune. Barnes observed that Rabada is slowly showing signs of getting his mojo back as indicated by his fiery spell in the post lunch session. On a day which belonged to the Indians courtesy their stellar batting efforts which helped them pile on 273-3 at Stumps, Rabada was the lone South African bowler to leave an impact by scalping all three wickets, including that of Cheteshwar Pujara and centurion Mayank Agarwal. Rabada ended the day with impressive figures of 3-48.

“It was fantastic to see him bowl, especially, the spell after lunch. I thought he bowled well in Vizag (Visakhapatnam) as well. Today, there were a lot of signs that he is getting to the top,” Barnes said at the end of the day’s play.

In fact, patience is the key for fast bowlers on this track as Rabada showed by getting Cheteshwar Pujara’s wicket with persistence. “Our focus on this tour is to bowl to our strengths. The plan was to be patient on a wicket that was going to give us assistance in the morning,” Barnes said.

“We had to keep bowling in the right areas and they would make mistakes. Pujara at one stage looked set and KG (Rabada) bowled in the right area and got the wicket.”