Rabada versus Smith: May the best man win
A foot outside off stump is a good point of attack against Oz skipper
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 attributed to the foolishness of youth. But Kagiso Rabada 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 torsoand immense courage, 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 for St Stithians College in Johannesburg.
Not even his biggest supporters could have imagined a final return of 6/16, which included a hat-trick, in his one-day international debut against Bangladesh 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 Australians have certainly taken notice. Since South Africa’s arrival 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 young tearaway, saying “he’s fast, very fast” in a cricket.com. au video that focused on Rabada, ahead of the three-Test series against the Proteas.
Smith saw plenty of Rabada in the recent ODI series in South Africa, and often had the upper hand even though his team was regularly back-pedalling. CSA’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 up front with his aggression, 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 did. He does, though, match – if not surpass – them with regard to physical courage and mental application at the crease. All the “fidgeting” at the crease before the bowler delivers does nothing to hinder 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, and continue to play the hook and pull shots he executes so well.
Smith will, as always, look to capitalise on anything pitched up on his legs, which leaves Rabada precious little room for error. He doesn’t mind moving all the way across to the off-stump to manipulate the field.
This can often prove unnerving for a bowler. Rabada will have to trust his lines and lengths, and not be perturbed with all the pre-delivery movement at the other end.
A foot outside the off stump is often a good point of attack against Smith. When the world’s No 1-ranked Test ba tsman is struggling with his form, which admittedly isn’t very often as he averages 58.55 from his 44 Tests, Smith does tend to move a little bit too far across, which squares him up to the moving ball outside the off-stump.
The upcoming series is undoubtedly the biggest test of Rabada’s fledgling career. Smith looms as a big part of that examination, especially after he warmed up for the series opener with a century in a Sheffield Shied match for New South Wales this week.
Smith’s record at the Perth venue is intimidating. He has scored centuries against New Zealand and England, in Australia’s last two Tests at the Waca.
Rabada, though, has responded to every challenge that has been laid before him thus far. When superstar new-ball pair Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander were ruled out of the England Test series due to injury last summer, the youngster led the Proteas attack with aplomb despite only having played a handful of Tests.
He will relish the duel with Smith and the rest of the Aussie batsmen. As he said:, “May the best man win”.