We don't want to want to risk short-term gain for long-term damage

Whoever turns up at South Africa's press conferences in Durban this week, whatever their role in the team, should expect to be put on KG watch. As in how is Kagiso Rabada doing in his race against time to recover from a hamstring injury if he is to be in the XI for the first Test against Australia at Kingsmead, which starts on Friday?

It was Simon Harmer's turn on Wednesday. He said: "Everybody wants him to play. The spectators, us in the changeroom, the Australians. I don't know exactly where he's at.

"A decision will be made as close to the [start of the] game as possible. But he's proved season-in, season-out that he's a world-class player, and he's only going to make our team better.

"So I really hope he does get in for the first Test but there's a lot of cricket this summer. We don't want to risk short-term gain for long-term damage."

Where Rabada was at for most of the opening stages of South Africa's training session at Kingsmead on Wednesday was the players' dining area. He appeared on the outfield in due course and worked his way through a series of warm-up and stretching exercises.

Then he made his way to the pitch on the western edge of the square, where a net had been erected. For a while Rabada stood behind the stumps at the non-striker's end and impersonated an umpire as other, more intact bowlers loped past him.

From there he moved to another pitch nearer the eastern end of the table with Piet Botha in close attendance. At first Rabada bowled off two paces and didn't allow himself a follow through. He stretched his gentle run to nine paces and did indeed follow though, sending down maybe 20 deliveries way. Rabada seemed to move easily enough, but he would need to be able come off more than nine paces and bowl exponentially more deliveries than 20 if he is to make the side.

There can be no surprise that there is an intense focus on Rabada's fitness. He is the undoubted star of this generation of South Africa's players. With him they are a far stronger team than without him.

But this South Africa team are better equipped to get by in Rabada's absence than any of their predecessors. Because, with the possible exception of Aiden Markram, he is the only player of his calibre in the squad. And that's a good thing, Harmer argued.

Harmer made his debut against West Indies at Newlands in January 2015 but has played only 14 Tests. First he went Kolpak, then Maharaj established himself as South Africa's No. 1. Harmer returned to the fold for the 2022 Bangladesh series.

The last Test between South Africa and Australia was the WTC final at Lord's in June last year, when South Africa won by five wickets to claim their first global trophy since 1998. They have suffered many disappoints in white-ball tournaments, where they have tended to crumble under pressure. Yet they prevailed in the white-knuckle intensity of a Test final. What changed for South Africa between 2015 and last June at Lord's?

"It's a group of guys who always find a way to win. There's a common purpose and everybody's pulling in the same direction. It's a very close group. When things do start to go awry there's a willingness to fight for your mate next to you, which has been amazing to see for me coming back in.

"Test cricket is like chess. You're going to have periods, sessions, hours when things don't go your way. It's about problem-solving and finding solution. That's something this team has done exceptionally well in recent history."

What was his experience previously?

"I mean this in the most respectful way possible. You had big names: AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn. These guys could win games on their own and they did that for South Africa time and time again.

"Now it's a team effort. It feels like every time we win it's somebody else putting up their hand. There's not this reliance on certain individuals."

It will be XI versus XI at Kingsmead on Friday, in every sense.