South Africa’s bowling attack has been as much a strength for them thus far in the 2026 T20 World Cup as their power-packed batting lineup. Peculiarly, though, Kagiso Rabada, the leader of their bowling department and widely considered among the best pacers of his generation, hasn’t exactly hit his stride thus far in the tournament.
The 30-year-old isn’t really too worried about it though, and is finding happiness in the fact that the Proteas are doing well and particularly that fellow pacer Lungi Ngidi has hit the races.
“That’s just the game of cricket,” Rabada said according to Reuters when reminded that four catches have gone down off his bowling in the tournament. “How many times does it actually go for you, and how many times does it not? More often than not it goes for you. Unfortunately, now it hasn’t been, but the most important thing is that we’ve been winning.”
Rabada has taken just four wickets in six games thus far in the tournament. Two of those came in South Africa’s nine-wicket win over the West Indies on Thursday. In fact, he was at the centre of it all when South Africa came close to losing to Afghanistan in a dramatic group stage match that needed two Super Overs to be decided. He overstepped when he took what would have been the final Afghanistan wicket in and that eventually led to Afghanistan tying in the match. Rabada joked that he made the match interesting but also admitted that he would’ve taken it pretty hard if they had lost.
“I’m glad we won that game against Afghanistan. Otherwise, I would have blamed myself for sure. On the positive side, I made it interesting but if we had lost that game, I would have taken it quite heavily, to be honest.” Ngidi has had a bit of a topsy-turvy time of it for South Africa accross formats and Rabada said that he couldn’t be happier for his teammate. “I’m extremely happy for Lungs. He’s been under quite a lot of scrutiny over the past two to five years. When you’re doing well, everyone reminds you, and when you’re not, it feels two-fold. I’m incredibly proud of how he’s turned that around. He’s a good friend of mine.” He was equally effusive about the rise of Corbin Bosch, crediting “meticulous hard work and prep” for what he called a “magnificent year and a half.”
