“Sometimes you’re chasing the game, sometimes you are on top of the game, and sometimes it’s even and you have to work out ways to get on top.” - Kagiso Rabada on his favourite format.
Telford Vice | Cape Town
GOOD thing Kagiso Rabada has a decent memory. Forty-three Tests into his career, he won’t forget what one of sport’s toughest and most satisfying challenges feels like. But the fact is he hasn’t been in whites for a year.
Rabada’s most recent first-class match was also his most recent Test — the third match of the series against England at St George’s Park, which ended a year ago on Wednesday. His overly aggressive celebration after he nailed Joe Root’s off stump in that game earned him a fourth demerit point in 24 months, triggering a ban for the last game of the rubber. South Africa’s next Test series was against Sri Lanka in December and January, which Rabada missed with a leg injury.
Covid-19 has helped limit his performances over the past dozen months to five T20Is against Australia and England, and 17 games for the Delhi Capitals in last year’s IPL. Rabada sent down 1,505 deliveries in matches in 2019/20. With the summer of 2020/21 more than halfway through, he has bowled only 441 balls. The lighter load is no bad thing for one of the hardest working fast bowlers in the game. So he has had plenty of downtime to hone his philosophy on Test cricket, which he will return to when Pakistan play South Africa in Karachi on Tuesday.
“It challenges you in every way and it challenges you in very different conditions,” Rabada said in a video file CSA released on Wednesday. “These days in one-day cricket pitches are kind of the same and you have high scoring games quite often. Not to say I don’t love one-day cricket and T20 cricket; I think they’re great for the game. But Test cricket is my favourite. It challenges you — the weather, the conditions. It’s interesting to see how it all unfolds.
“Sometimes you’re chasing the game, sometimes you are on top of the game, and sometimes it’s even and you have to work out ways to get on top. And the other team is doing the same thing. It’s a thrill. It builds up to such a climax and at the end, after all the hard work you put in, especially when you’ve won, it’s extremely rewarding; more rewarding than in any other format.
“Mentally, its very challenging because you’re playing international cricket, and you are going to have to raise your intensity. Naturally that happens. It’s always up, so you’ll find that at the end of each day you’re blown. Not only physically but mentally as well because of the intensity you put your mind through. Sometimes you have to gear up. It’s not about staying in one gear. Gearing up means lifting your intensity by much more. Mentally can also mean tactically. When you’re behind, how do you deal with that? When you’re on top, how do you deal with that? As much as it is physical, it’s more mental.”
Test cricket was different the last time Rabada played it. The virus hadn’t closed down much of the world and how we live in it. So there were spectators. “The crowd brings in that excitement; they add to the theatrics and the drama,” Rabada said. “It’s always nice to have people who cheer you on. But I don’t think it changes much really because competitiveness naturally gets us going as athletes. You’re playing to win, in good spirit. So I don’t think anyone is going to drop their intensity. But the crowd adds that fun element. We will definitely miss the crowd, especially in Pakistan. We know how fanatic their fans can be.”
Particularly when, because of security considerations, those fans have seen their team play at home only 28 times since May 2015. More so because South Africa will be Pakistan’s most high profile visiting opposition in that time, and still more so because the South Africans were last in Pakistan in 2007. Pakistanis’ hearts will swell with pride and joy that Rabada and his teammates are in their midst, but sink with the disappointment that they won’t be able to support their team in person because of pandemic regulations.
“I am glad to say I’ve had the chance to tour Pakistan because they have such prestige in international cricket and in the history of cricket,” Rabada said. “This is the only [Test-playing] country I hadn’t been to. They’ve had some greats of the game.”
Pakistan will go into the series with their 0-2 defeat in New Zealand in December and January still on their minds. But they will have captain and ace batter Babar Azam back from the thumb injury that ruled him out of those matches. “I’m expecting Pakistan to come fighting, that’s one thing they do,” Rabada said. “It’s going to be a Test series we are going to have to earn the right to win.”
The South Africans have been able to prepare for the series something like normally because they didn’t have to quarantine on their arrival in Karachi on Saturday, unlike what would have been the case in other countries. Not that Rabada was feeling hemmed in by life in the time of Covid. “It’s great, especially in the bio-bubble where you have quite a lot of players staying in your room,” he said. “Not having such a big squad could get a bit demoralising, so it’s nice to have the guys on board and also give guys the opportunity to be within this environment; to experience the intensity with which we work and the mental processes which this environment forces you adopt.
“We are a building team, and it’s fantastic that guys can be in this set-up so they can have a proper taste of what it’s like to play international cricket. It holds our team in good stead for the future. Socially it’s great as well. There’s good banter between the guys. We’re getting to know each other more. We chill with each other whenever. It’s great for camaraderie. It feels like boarding school.”
Note that Rabada described South Africa as a “building” team, and not as a side who were rebuilding. It’s a subtle but significant difference from the approach teams usually take when they are trying to recover from the removal from their equation of important figures. South Africa know the feeling too well. Since Rabada’s Test debut against India in Mohali in November 2015, they have lost the services of, among others, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Vernon Philander and Dale Steyn.
Would that Rabada brings that level of thought and maturity to his relationship with umpires, match referees and the ICC. The demerit point he was docked as a result of the Root incident is the only active smirch on his disciplinary record, which has been pockmarked by six instances of bad behaviour since February 2017. Might we not see a seventh?
“I don’t know. No disrespect to the opponents, but I think it’s an impulsive habit. Maybe I guess sometimes I’ve crossed the line a little bit. That’s just the way I always play. Especially now with the rules … It seems like I never learn. But I’m going to have to learn, right?”
There’s only one answer to that question, regardless of whether you’re wearing Test whites or white-ball pyjamas. And it’s not no or wait. Best a loud “Yes!” is lodged in Rabada’s memory.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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