Cape Town - Kagiso Rabada is set to be rewarded for his spectacular arrival on the South African cricket scene at the Cricket SA awards later this month.
The 21-year-old paceman has been nominated in five categories the annual ceremony that will take place at the Sandton Convention Centre on July 26 – Cricketer of the Year, Test Cricketer of the Year, ODI Cricketer of the Year, the “So Good” Award and Delivery of the Year.
Rabada made his Test debut against India in Mohali last November, and was arguably the best Proteas bowler on the tour, but didn’t have much luck as he took just two wickets in three Tests.
But things improved in the series against England on home soil. After being surprisingly left out for the opening game in Durban, Rabada claimed four wickets at Newlands and then five at the Wanderers, before he rocked the cricketing world with a remarkable match analysis of 13/144 in the final Test in Centurion, which the Proteas won by 280 runs.
The youngster took seven wickets in the first innings and six in the second to record the second-best match figures in South African history behind Makhaya Ntini’s 13/132. He was also the second-youngest player in Test history to take 13 scalps, and it was the best ever performance in Centurion.
He has 24 Test wickets after six matches, with an average of 24.70, and is also steadily improving in the ODI and T20I arenas. Rabada has taken 37 wickets in 20 ODIs (21.45 average) and 22 in 16 T20 internationals.
His ability to bowl up to 150km/h and the variety in his bowling, from bouncers to vicious yorkers, has seen him emerge as the Proteas spearhead in all three formats of the game ahead of Morné Morkel following injuries to Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander.
For the Test award, Rabada will be in a race with Temba Bavuma – who scored his maiden hundred in a pulsating innings against England at Newlands – and master batsman Hashim Amla, who despite relinquishing the captaincy, showed his class with two double hundreds against England, at Newlands and Centurion.
Captain AB de Villiers and wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock will provide stiff competition for Rabada in the ODI category, while Imran Tahir is the favourite to be named as the T20 International Cricketer of the Year ahead of Amla and JP Duminy.
The big gong will be the overall Cricketer of the Year, where Rabada will be up against Amla, De Villiers, Tahir and De Kock.
On the domestic front, new Proteas ODI cap Tabraiz Shamsi is in the running for the Sunfoil Series four-day cricketer of the year after grabbing 41 wickets in seven matches to finish as the third-highest wicket-taker in the competition, with his best match analysis being 12/85.
But he will be hard-pressed to beat Titans opener Heino Kuhn, who scored a mammoth 1 126 in 10 matches, with four hundreds and four fifties, to be the only batsman to go past the 1 000-run mark. Lions all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius is also a strong contender with 36 wickets and 402 runs.
Former England star Kevin Pietersen is the front-runner for the RamSlam T20 Player of the Year award following his dramatic effect on the Dolphins’ run to the final. Pietersen scored 401 runs in just seven innings, with two hundreds and two fifties to end second on the run-scorers’ list behind Quinton de Kock, who reached 437 in 11 innings.
The judging panel consists of Aslam Khota (convenor), Neil Manthorp, Victor Mpitsang, HD Ackerman, Mark Boucher and Andrew Samson.