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Johannesburg - Emerging South African fast
bowler Kagiso Rabada would be looking to lay down the marker for the extended
tour of the subcontinent in the two-match T20 series against Bangladesh
starting on Sunday.
The 20-year-old Rabada has made a meteoric rise to the national set-up following his super display at last year’s Under-19 World Cup and subsequent senior T20 debut against Australia in Adelaide in November 2014.
Although Rabada has also been named in the One-Day International and Tests squads, he knows full well it would require hard work to cement his place among the regular starters.
“To be honest I don’t have the necessary experience (of subcontinent conditions) so I will go and find out,” Rabada said ahead of the team’s departure to Bangladesh.
“The goal is to establish myself in international cricket but only performances will do that for me, so I am hoping to prepare well. And if I do the right things the performances will come.
“The dream is always to play Test cricket, that is the ultimate form, so it has been a good season and hopefully it continues in that fashion in international cricket for me and the team.”
While this will be Rabada’s first tour of Bangladesh he was exposed to the subcontinent conditions when he travelled to India with the South Africa Under-19 team.
“The simple things I would say is the length, the ball sits up there, it is quite slow off the deck and you need to vary it with your slow balls,” Rabada said.
“You need to be clever in the way you get the batsmen out, not your ordinary dismissals, obviously reverse swing plays a role in the subcontinent.”
Rabada admitted his knowledge and experience of the playing surfaces was limited but he was eager to learn from the senior players.
“The senior players will tell you about their experiences and then you can adapt from that but I think we will get together as a team and that is where different ideas are shared,” Rabada said.
“They try and help me a lot and because I am a fast bowler it is good to get their perspective but I think it is also good to get batsman’s perspective.
“Because they will let you know exactly how it is to bat and where they get to score and where they get bogged down.”
Although Rabada’s selection is courtesy of his abilities with the ball in hand, he was keen on proving that he could also make a valuable contribution with the bat.
“I’ve been working on it, I don’t want to be one dimensional and I am looking to be and asset in all departments of my game which is something I pride myself in,” he said.
“The batting I’ve been working on and hopefully I can score some runs for the Proteas.”
