What Rabada, the philosopher fast bowler, knows now
Rabada returns from injury for the second Test with fewer certainties and, by his own telling, more understanding
The downside of growing older is that your body can’t do what it used to. The upside is that you learn about life; what to do and what not to do. That’s as true for Kagiso Rabada as it is for the rest of us.
Rabada hasn’t played a match of any sort for more than four-and-a-half months; the last two months because of a hamstring injury. Now he is set to return as South Africa look to keep their Test series against Australia alive. The maturity Rabada brings could make all the difference.
A Rabada-less South Africa were outbatted, outbowled and even outfielded in the first Test at Kingsmead, which Australia won by 214 runs on Tuesday.
But the home side’s spearhead has been pronounced fit and available for the second Test at St George’s Park, which is scheduled to start on Sunday. Would he have preferred a more gentle reintroduction in less pressured circumstances; a quiet game or two to see where his confidence is at?
“I don’t have a game or two,” Rabada told reporters on Saturday. “We’re 1-0 down. There’s no game or two. You have to do the best that you can with what you’ve been given.
“Confidence is something you build over time. Ever since I can remember I’ve always had self-belief and belief in the teammates around me.
“Some days you don’t go in confident. I’ve probably gone into games not feeling confident more than I have been extremely confident. So it’s about finding a way. You hear so many athletes say, ‘You’ve got to find a way'. Most of the time that’s certainly how I approach it.”
It’s strange to hear Rabada speak in those terms. He never looks anything like short of confidence. Maybe he couldn’t admit such a thing when he made his debut, five months after his 20th birthday, against India in Mohali in November 2015. Now, seven months away from turning 32, he can.
The physical side of staying at the top of the game as you age is a hard grind, Rabada said: “The older you get the more you’re going to have to train because your body slows down a lot. And the more you have to look into the one-percenters of how you’re going to recover.
“A great deal of work has to be done off the field so that you can perform on the field. And then all the other stuff, like recovery and diet. These days everything is so scientific. So you try to be perfect but you’re not going to be. It’s about weighing up all those one-percenters and seeing how much you can actually do to prevent injury.
“The older you get the slower your body is going to respond [to treatment]. That’s been the case for me in the last year or two. But it’s part and parcel of the game and it’s not something that makes me anxious.”
The mental side of staying at the top of the game as you age might not be so hard a grind. In the previous Test between these teams at this ground, the second stanza of the stormy Sandpapergate series in March 2018, CSA had to hire Dali Mpofu, at the time one of the country’s most prominent lawyers, to get Rabada out of a disciplinary jam after he walked into Steven Smith after trapping him in front.
Physically Rabada was rampant in that match — he took 5/96 and 6/54, and South Africa won by six wickets. Mentally, at 22 years and nine months old, he had lessons to learn. Had he learnt them?
“As an athlete you want to go out and express yourself. There’s no hate off the field or anything like that. It’s a bunch of top-performing athletes who’ve got testosterone to burn. It’s the heat of the moment.
“But, with the ICC, you have to take into consideration the rules that have been put in place regarding viewers who are watching the game, and keeping the game in a good light. That’s understandable. You need characters in sport. But you also need to play within the rules.”
Maybe it’s a balancing act between staying in your lane while roaring up the road, afterburners alight?
“I like to let the game take me. I know what I want to do but I don’t know the emotions I’m going to feel. Right now I feel ready. I feel confident. But there’s always mystery in sport. You don’t know if you’re going to win or lose. But I don’t want to give too many inches.
“I know what it means for me. And that’s giving my best and trying to get Australian batters out and for us to perform as a collective. And then you just kind of let the game take you and let it steer you towards what you need to do.”
The philosopher fast bowler had more where that came from: “When you’re in the game nothing else matters. Of course the people who support you, the people in the stadium, the people who support South African cricket, your family, your teammates, they matter a lot.
“But when you’re in the game nothing else matters. Having played [for South Africa] for 11 years now I know there’s heaps of strategy and gameplan. But you’ve still got to allow for the naturalness to come through because that’s what actually makes you unique as a cricketer.
“Especially these days, you look at T20 cricket and 50-over cricket — especially T20 actually — everything is so standardised. There’s so much footage. Everything is extremely technical. You almost know exactly what the bowler and the batter are going to do, and it kind of ruins a bit of your artistic flair. But it’s really important to keep your naturalness because that’s what makes you you.”
If that sounds like Rabada is more about thinking than doing, think again: “We understand the magnitude of this match but it’s not about letting it control you. It’s realising what’s in front of us. If you don’t get a kick out of it maybe it’s time to retire and hang up the boots. There’s definitely an urge to want to go and play and give it our best shot.
“We know that we can do it. We’ve proven it to ourselves before. You also need to leave some space. You don’t know what's going to happen; you can't think about what might happen or what might not happen. We’ve got to do what we know we can do.”
The South Africans discovered what they could do in the WTC final at Lord’s in June last year, when they beat Australia by five wickets. Does that remain a motivation or had too much happened since?
“That’s one of the hallmarks of our journey as a team; probably our biggest moment. So you’ve got to remember that and draw confidence from it. But you also realise that time is moving on.
“We know that it’s not going to be an easy road. You’re not going to win all the time. That’s sport. We realise where we have to make some adjustments moving forward into the season.”
CSA said on August 21 that Rabada’s “winter training programme has been disrupted after he sustained a right hamstring injury”. He was the most prominent victim of a hamdemic that claimed six victims in South Africa’s international ranks, five of them fast bowlers.
Despite that Rabada was part of the squad in Durban, where he worked on his rehabilitation and increasing his physical loads. His intensity in training increased visibly, but he was kept out of the first match of the summer as a precaution.
“It was more about getting it to heal so that I can play at full intensity and for [his absence] not to be prolonged or the injury to keep reoccurring. That was the main focus for getting back. It’s a long cricket summer with lots of cricket to be played, so I guess the timing of it wasn’t too bad.”
Nonetheless Rabada was a spectator at Kingsmead. Was he much of a cricket watcher?
“When I’m around the team I’m in the environment. But when I’m at home I don’t watch cricket.”
Although he wasn’t on the field in Durban he surely brought the experience of his 73 Tests to bear on the dressing room?
“You don’t want to flood the guys with information. But whenever someone needs some sort of tip or exchange of information I’m always there. You have to trust the guys. They’ve been playing for a while now and they know what they need to do to get the best out of themselves.
“As someone who’s been in the team for quite some time, if I have something to say I’ll say it. But that’s very seldom.”
Considering much of the above that won’t be easily believed. So let’s leave you with two short sharp shocks.
The South Africans and Australians are sharing a hotel in Gqeberha. Did that mean Rabada and Smith might have met for a late-night coffee?
“That’s one thing I wouldn’t put money on.”
What was he expecting from himself in his first spell?
“A hattrick.”
He meant the first of those statements. The second was a joke. But, like the man said, that’s sport. You never can tell.
