ICC World Cup 2019: ‘Tried to stop him from playing IPL,’ du Plessis blames league for Rabada’s poor show

Rabada, who was supposed to lead the South Africa bowling attack in the absence of Steyn, did not live up to his reputation. With six wickets in six outings at an average of 50.83, he had an ordinary World Cup to say the least.

A couple of weeks after blaming the IPL for Dale Steyn’s injury, South Africa captain Faf du Plessis this time held the league responsible for the below-par performance of their pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada. Du Plessies went on to reveal that the South Africa team management had even tried to stop Rabada from taking part in IPL 2019, prior to the World Cup.

South Africa's Kagiso Rabada (L) celebrates with South Africa's captain Faf du Plessis after taking the wicket of India's Shikhar Dhawan for eight during the 2019 Cricket World Cup group stage match between South Africa and India at the Rose Bowl in Southampton, southern England, on June 5, 2019. (AFP)

“We did try and get him (Rabada) 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,” said du Plessis.

“I mean, I spoke about it before the IPL even started, that it’s important that we try and find space to rest our three-format players, because they play all the formats all the time, and then IPL.” Du Plessis’ comments came after South Africa bowed out of the World Cup with a 49-run defeat to Pakistan.

Rabada, who was supposed to lead the South Africa bowling attack in the absence of Steyn, did not live up to his reputation. With six wickets in six outings at an average of 50.83, he had an ordinary World Cup to say the least. And it reflected on South Africa’s performance as the Proteas managed to win only one - that too against Afghanistan - out of their 7 matches .

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“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,” du Plessis said.

Rabada played 12 matches and picked up 25 wickets for Delhi Capitals before returning home.

“But that challenge we are going to have as a team all the time. You can’t unfortunately go back with the national side and say to KG: Listen, you’re going to rest for the next two series’. He’s such a big player for the team; it’s a difficult thing to do. You know, you need guys that can...you need three or four or five bowlers in the wings waiting, so you can have a bit of a rotation system. I mean, that was the plan with Anrich [Nortje] in the back-up and pipeline, and he got injured, as well. So therefore all our pace is gone and there’s so much responsibility on KG to carry that load of being the lone fast bowler.”

This was not the first time du Plessis pointed fingers at the IPL. He had done the same when Steyn was ruled out of the tournament earlier this month.

Du Plessis, however, was confident of a strong comeback from Rabada, brushing off the disappointments of the World Cup. “KG is trying. But I suppose, the same thing, it’s that a lot of the guys are struggling with at the moment is they haven’t started the tournament well; and therefore, your confidence has taken a bit of a hit, and it just rolls on. It’s such a snowball effect that your performance, you open your eyes, and you’re doing the same thing again,” du Plessis said.