Cape Town – “Australia are going to come hard, we’re going to try and come hard. May the best man win.” This is a whopping statement, notably because it’s coming from a 21-year-old on his first Test tour to Australia.
Under normal circumstances this waving of the red flag would be the attributed to the foolishness of youth. Kagiso Rabada though is not any normal 21-year-old.
Firstly he is a physical specimen of note. Standing 1.91m in his socks, Rabada has the height to impose himself on most situations. Marry that with a muscular torso that houses a heart of a lion and the lungs of an endurance athlete and you have a phenomenon.
Natural ability, though, means nothing without the mental capacity to harness it through hard work and commitment. Rabada possesses it in spades. This is a young man who knows what he wants and is prepared to work bloody hard to get it.
This has translated into a meteoric rise, even for a prodigy like Rabada who was touted for greatness ever since he delivered that first ball at St Stithians in Johannesburg. Not even his biggest supporters could have imagined a final return of 6/16, which included a hat-trick, on his One-Day International debut that had the statisticians re-rewriting the record books.
But this was no once-off performance. He closed out an ODI in the cauldron of India even though the hosts’ master finisher MS Dhoni was at the crease and finished off the home season with a 13-wicket haul against England at SuperSport Park in just his sixth Test.
These types of feats are bound to draw attention and the Aussies have certainly taken notice. Since South Africa’s arrival in Down Under a week ago all the attention has been on the young fast bowler from the Highveld.
Even the hosts’ skipper Steve Smith has been impressed with the tearaway, saying “he’s fast, very fast” in a cricket.com.au video focusing on Rabada ahead of the Test series.
Smith has seen plenty of Rabada in the recent ODI series, and often had the upper-hand even though his team was regularly backpedalling. South Africa’s Cricketer of the Year was unusually off target during the five-match series, but that was more due to fatigue than form.
Come the first Test at the Waca next week Rabada will certainly have Smith in his sights. David Warner may set the tone upfront with his aggressive instincts, but the Australian captain is the fulcrum around which the Baggy Greens’ batting line-up rotates.
Smith does not possess the exquisite technique that his predecessors Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting had. He does, though, match - if not surpass - them with regards to physical courage and mental application at the crease. All the movement in the crease before the bowler delivers does nothing to hamper his hand-eye coordination. Rabada will look to trouble Smith with the bouncer on the pacy Waca pitch, but rest assured he will wear the blows but continue to play the hook and pull shot he does so well.
Smith will, as always, look to capitalise on anything pitched up on his legs which leaves Rabada precious little room for error and he will relish the duel.
The Star