Australia v South Africa, II Test, Hobart

Weather forecast: Showers are expected for at least the first two days of the Test match.

Skipper Faf du Plessis hailed one of the best wins of his career after Kagiso Rabada’s five-wicket haul led South Africa to a remarkable turnaround victory in the first Test against Australia on Monday.

South Africa – Stephen Cook, Dean Elgar, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis (c), Temba Bavuma, JP Duminy, Quinton de Kock, Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel, Kyle Abbott.

“If David Warner or Steve Smith don’t score heavily, the Aussies are in trouble”. But also as a player you always have pressure to perform at global level. Resuming at 169 for four, a draw was Australia’s only hope and it appeared a forlorn task, with man-of-the-match Rabada ensuring that was the case with 5-92.

Domingo said: “I am going to get abused for saying it again, but there’s so much cricket being played and when you do things like go to a tour to West Indies, and guys are arriving a day before you play, the intensity will never be what it needs to be”.

Rabada is shaping as a ideal long-term replacement for Steyn, having also claimed the wickets of Shaun Marsh (15), Smith (34) and Adam Voges (1) on the fourth day. However, a series defeat at home, particularly one that happened to be clinched in the same deflating fashion as the Australians were thumped at the WACA, would ramp up the heat on Smith’s Australians.

“He isn’t in the best form with the bat either, which compounds the problem for him personally and for the team as a whole”.

“The facts are it was disappointing”, Waugh said on Fox Sports.

Regarding the prospect of an all-out pace attack, Smith suggested “I’m not really sure that’s the way we’re thinking”.

“We will have to see who replaces Steyn but Rabada will be the key, how we handle him”, he said.

Australia lost wickets in clumps in Perth. Full credit to them.

“I think if he’s fit he’ll be in the team”.

Reverse swing – when the ball moves away from its usual trajectory, usually when it is older and rougher – is unlikely in lush, damp Hobart.

All this bodes well for the second test which starts at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart on Saturday.

“You have to go through it a few times and learn how to get out of it”.

Steve Smith’s Australia will go into the match with two debutants, with South Australia veteran Callum Ferguson coming in for Marsh at number six.

Since Shaun is out injured, there is place for both of them in the squad and I feel Mitchell Marsh looks out of place at no.6 in the Test line-up.

Callum Ferguson could be drafted into a misfiring middle order, regardless of whether Adam Voges’ hamstring is up to scratch, while Jackson Bird is on standby should Mitchell Starc or Josh Hazlewood pull up sore.