Fire returns to Kagiso Rabada's eyes as he seeks to rediscover form

While England wait on the fitness of their fastest bowler Jofra Archer, South Africa can relax knowing their own superstar, Kagiso Rabada, is rediscovering his form.

Archer barely bowled in training on New Year's Day due to a sore elbow while Rabada entered it on the back of his best performance of 2019, after taking seven wickets in South Africa's win at SuperSport Park. There, Rabada played a solid supporting role in the first innings before sparking an England collapse of 6 for 46 against the second new ball in the second innings, where he attacked with intensity and found a hint of swing.

"There's definitely a lot more fire in KG's eyes at the moment," said Quinton de Kock, who played franchise cricket with Rabada for several seasons.

Rabada's effort came at the end of his leanest full calendar year in wicket terms since his debut in 2019, with 33 wickets from eight Tests at 27.39. By way of comparison, in 2016, he played nine Tests and took 46 wickets at 23.24 and he claimed more than 50 wickets in both 2017 and 2018.

A combination of being overbowled - Rabada played the full IPL in 2019 and returned with a back injury ahead of the Word Cup - and being out of ideas - South Africa did not have a dedicated bowling coach in the Ottis Gibson era - are the likeliest causes of Rabada's slump, although Vernon Philander believes it was also inevitable, and valuable.

"He was going to get a knock at some stage, a dip in form, whatever you want to call it, but the only way to get through it is to go through it yourself," Philander said. "I am glad he has gone through it because there's no greater learning than learning yourself. The most important part was for him to go through it and to really feel what it feels like and to now come out and identify what's going to work for him moving forward."

As an earnest learner, Rabada has been trying to add to his arsenal from a young age. Given his athleticism and his height, pace and bounce come naturally to him and he has spoken about working on the cutter and the inswinging yorker and the IPL provided evidence that he had learnt a lot about bowling both.

But at the World Cup and then in India, Rabada looked out of sorts, down on pace, and frustrated. Theories were hatched about how his overuse as an up-and-coming quick was impacting his longevity. Philander didn't think that was the issue. "The longer you play the more you realise that the simpler you keep it, the more results you will get. He went through that phase where he wanted to try a few things and it didn't quite worked, and now he has gone back to the old simple self and it seems to be working again."

At SuperSport Park, Rabada's performance resembled much of what we saw of him from the early days of his career. For the most part, he pitched the ball up on off stump and let the movement he found do the rest. Occasionally, he held his length back but he didn't overcomplicate his approach. For that, new (old) bowling coach Charl Langeveldt may deserve credit.

Langeveldt worked with the South African attack under Russell Domingo between 2015 and 2017 but was dispensed with when Gibson came on board. He was re-recruited to join Mark Boucher's coaching staff and at the team's training camp before the series, Rabada said he was looking forward to Langeveldt's guidance, especially his directness. "Tactically I think he's really good," he said. "Technically he doesn't force things upon you. He's really simple. He gets to the point. I just like how natural he is. He gets to the point really quickly."

It was also there that de Kock noticed the Rabada of old returning. "At the camp before the first Test, it seemed like he was really excited to get going and play. He was very motivated," de Kock said.

That may not be the best news for England, especially with the way Archer has begun 2020. But they may be lessons from Rabada's experience for Archer and they've come from a player whose bowling style is not quite the same as theirs but who has years of experience to lean on. Philander warned Archer, who was England's most expensive bowler at Centurion, that being fast is not enough and being focused is just as important.

"Extreme pace is not going to get you across the line. You need to be able to be consistent at what you do. And in international cricket guys will work you out. You can have extreme pace, rush batters and make life uncomfortable for them but at some stage, guys are going to get used to your pace and they are going to be able to play you," Philander said.

"It's finding what works for you on different surfaces and saying, 'I can actually hold the game as well, at whatever pace'. You don't want to be the one guy going at five or six an over and putting the rest of the attack under pressure because you are going at five or six. It's making sure that you have aggression but also that you can hold the game."

That's the kind of bowler Rabada is being allowed to develop into because South Africa have found raw pace in other players, like Anrich Nortje, control from Dwaine Pretorius and space in the team for both of them, which allows them to play with four frontline quicks. "We've got a nice balance now," de Kock said. "We've got Anna [Nortje], who bowls high 140s and is not really the most pleasant guy to face, then Vern with steady pace, Dwaine, who can hold one side and then KG who is always picking up wickets."