By Karan Agrawal 
South Africa’s fast bowling spearhead Kagiso Rabada has been in decent form since the start of the year which began with him guiding MI Cape Town to their first SA20 title courtesy of some match-winning spells in the tournament. Rabada continued his good work for South Africa in the recently concluded Champions Trophy with the proteas making it to the top four only to fall short of the final yet again. Rabada is among the few fast bowlers of the modern generation who has been able to keep himself fit while playing consistently for over a decade for South Africa. Former South African fast bowler Dale Steyn who has seen Rabad’s progression as a fast bowler from a young age seemed impressed by his performances in T20 cricket. Steyn compared Rabada to Bumrah in terms of the skills that he possesses as a T20 bowler
The Praise
Talking to Cricket Monthly Steyn said that with the demands of the game changing rapidly bowlers need to have the ability to take wickets in an otherwise challenging format and that’s where bowlers like Kagiso Rabada and Jasprit Bumrah come in handy. In the words of Steyn, “The game has changed a lot, honestly, with T20 cricket. And what I mean by that is the way batters approach the game these days. So when I’m looking for bowlers, especially in the (T20) leagues where I do a little bit of coaching, I’m looking for the guys that have got the ability to take wickets – massive wicket-taking mentality. You look at guys like Jasprit Bumrah, he’s probably the all-in-all package, him and KG Rabada.”
The Reason
Steyn also believed that only bowling fast is not going to fetch you wickets as a fast bowler and one needs to have the awareness about how to bowl at different stages of a game and that’s what makes Bumrah and Rabada different from others. “They’ve got the ability to come and bowl at any particular time in a game and take a wicket. Those guys are like gold. So if you can produce more bowlers like that, we’ll start to see our fast-bowling stock get so much better. It’s not just about bowling 155kph these days or having tens of different types of skills, it’s really about being able to break the game open when your captain needs it,” Steyn added