New Delhi, Aug 8 (IANS) South Africa pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada has urged his teammates to look beyond their historic ICC World Test Championship (WTC) Final triumph and shift their focus to upcoming challenges, including the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup and the 2027 ODI World Cup.
Rabada admitted the joy of beating Australia at Lord’s in the WTC Final was immense, but stressed that the Proteas must now move on and target the upcoming major ICC trophies.
“It was kind of like a relief. But the show moves on, and moving toward the T20 World Cup, I guess the approach will be a bit different. Now there’s no fear of anything,” Rabada was quoted by ICC as saying.
South Africa are scheduled to play six white-ball games against Australia, starting with a three-match T20I series in Darwin from Sunday, and Rabada believes it’s the perfect opportunity to gear up for the global tournaments ahead.
“The rivalry between Australia and South Africa has always been something to behold. It’s always some hard cricket being played … whenever we play Australia. It always feels like they get the best out of us, because they’re in our faces. And I guess we like that,” Rabada said.
The right-armer, being the senior member Proteas attack, is keen to help the next generation of promising fast bowlers – like teenager Kwena Maphaka – progress through the ranks in international cricket.
“Yeah, I’d like to do that for quite a lot of the players. From my point of view, (I feel) that I’m obliged to almost take them under extra care. But I think he’s going to learn from his own experiences as well and from his own journey. And we’re just there to be a sounding board,” he said.
–IANS
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