Rabada on WTC Final Face-Off with Australia at Lord’s
South African pacer Kagiso Rabada is confident that his side can pull off a big shock against Australia in the World Test Championship 2025 final and said the Proteas know how to beat Australia, with plans for the one-off Test at Lord's already in motion.
Cape Town: South African pacer Kagiso Rabada is confident that his side can pull off a big shock against Australia in the World Test Championship 2025 final and said the Proteas know how to beat Australia, with plans for the one-off Test at Lord’s already in motion.
South Africa closed out their bilateral cycle with a dominant 10-wicket win over Pakistan in Cape Town on Monday, completing a clean sweep of Shan Masood’s side. This victory followed their earlier two-wicket win in Centurion, securing their maiden WTC final berth.
“It’s actually quite some distance away, but a big occasion like the World Test Championship Final gets you up for it. South Africa versus Australia has always been an intense rivalry, because we play cricket quite similarly. We play hard – and they’re going to come hard at us, and we know that,” said Rabada, who claimed six wickets in the win to help the Proteas secure a seventh straight Test victory.
“But we also know how to beat them. (Test cricket is) our best format that we’ve been playing right now. When you look at South African cricket and all our legends, they’ve all been great Test cricketers. The world’s best players are Test cricketers, and this series against Pakistan has been a wonderful advert,” he added.
South Africa finished with 69.44% of possible points across the cycle, claiming table-topping bragging rights, while Australia (63.73%) could not surpass this figure, even with a clean sweep in their upcoming series against Sri Lanka.
With no Test matches scheduled for South Africa before the WTC final, Proteas coach Shukri Conrad has outlined potential preparations.
“We’re going to try and get a Test match, possibly in the UK, against Ireland or Afghanistan, whoever is free. And if unsuccessful, we’ll obviously go out a couple of days earlier and make sure we camp there really well, probably in Canterbury,” Conrad said.
