Ahead of the much-anticipated test series between Australia and South Africa, the mind games have already begun. Just after the recent whitewash of Australia by the Proteas at home, it was skipper Faf du Plessis who said that the Australians have mellowed down over the years. Du Plessis, in his statement, said that beating Australia this time around wouldn’t be too tough.
From Australia’s end, Peter Siddle has taken the mantle of himself, as he said that the Australian batsmen would look to target Kagiso Rabada. Siddle, who was out due to an injury for quite a while, said that Rabada had been quite impressive in his brief career. The Victorian pacer, though, said that Dale Steyn was still the biggest threat to Australia.
“Rabada is coming along well,” Siddle said. “It’s a good find for them and he’s progressing well. “So it’ll be interesting to see how he goes over here in a big series. “There will be a fair bit of pressure on him I think, coming out to Australia and all the hype around the series and that type of thing. “I don’t reckon he is a danger man. I reckon he’s the man we can sort of target,” the experienced pacer said.
Comparing Rabada’s case with Steven Finn, Siddle said that the pacer could be taken for plenty by the Australian batsmen. “In the past other countries have brought out players like that – you sort of think of England’s Steve Finn a few Ashes series ago when they brought him out. “He might have taken a few wickets but he did leak a lot of runs. “There was a lot of pressure on him, from his end. “So that’s the sort of thing that we could look to do to Rabada.”
“We know Dale, if he gets a big workload, it puts him under a lot of pressure ,” Siddle said. “Dale and whoever else that third option is whether it’s Philander, Abbott or whoever it might be – yeah, it’s going to put a lot of pressure on them if Rabada leaks runs.”