Nine years of Test cricket and Kagiso Rabada has only picked 285 wickets till now. This piece of stat has left Makhaya Ntini rather miffed and led him to wonder if Rabada would be able to attain greater milestones. Despite him taking a fifer in the India vs South Africa match, Ntini raised the issue of the Proteas playing a lesser number of Tests.
Comparing Rabada with bowlers from other countries, Ntini said, “He is already up there. When you talk about those guys, when you talk about those bowlers, they have passed the 400-mark and KG is chasing the 300-mark. But we have got a massive problem.”
“You are playing two Test matches a year and what is that? Do you think this guy (Rabada) can hold up till he gets to that milestone? It’s not going to be easy for the nature of games (number of matches and formats) that is being given to South Africa to play against other countries,” he added.
Ntini went on to stress on the need of playing Tests. “No! Your country is your priority. Take the example of Kagiso. How many Test matches has he played and he still continues to play IPL. If Gerald Coetzee today thinks that he is getting a million rands and what he should do now, that will be his biggest mistake,” he added.
Kagiso Rabada Reaches 500 Wickets
On the flip side, Rabada reached 500 wickets across formats on Tuesday. He also bagged his 14th fifer in Tests, pushing India on the back foot on the first day of the Test itself. With this, he is seventh on the list for most wickets for South Africa, and only six behind Jacques Kallis, who has 291 Test wickets. Dale Steyn tops the list with 439 wickets in 93 Tests.
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