Kagiso Rabada (born 25 May 1995) is a South African international

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er who plays all formats of the game. He is a right arm fast bowler. He made his international debut in November 2014 in limited-overs cricket before going on to make his

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debut in November 2015. By January 2018, he had topped both the ICC ODI bowler rankings and the ICC Test bowler rankings aged 22. In July 2018, he became the youngest bowler to take 150 wickets in Tests (23 years and 50 days). In July 2016, Rabada became the first cricketer to win six awards at

Cricket South Africa Cricket South Africa (CSA) is the governing body for both professional and amateur cricket in South Africa. In 1991, the separate South African Cricket Union and the South African Cricket Board merged to form the United Cricket Board of South Afr ...

's (CSA) annual dinner, including the prize for Cricketer of the Year. In June 2018, he again won six awards at CSA's annual dinner, including Cricketer of the Year, Test Cricketer and ODI Cricketer of the Year. In August 2018, ''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' named him the best young player in the world.

Domestic career

Rabada made his debut for the

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

in the

CSA Provincial One-Day Competition The CSA Provincial Competitions are three South African domestic cricket competitions run by Cricket South Africa (CSA). Three-day ( first-class) and one-day (List A) competitions were introduced for the 2004–05 season, while a Twenty20 compet ...

against

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in December 2013. Rabada was chosen to represent South Africa's Under-19 side for the

2014 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2014 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was a one-day cricket competition for sixteen international U-19 cricketing teams which was played in the United Arab Emirates. This was the tenth edition of the tournament. Sixteen nations competed: the ten ...

. For the victorious South Africans, he was their best bowler claiming the 2nd most wickets (14) in the tournament at an economy rate of 3.10. He also claimed the best figures of the tournament: 6/25 against Australia A. This led to him being dubbed "the fastest and most feared bowler in the competition". Rabada's performances in the Under-19 World Cup saw him catapulted into the

Lions The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus '' Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; ad ...

franchise for their last two games of the

Sunfoil Series The CSA 4-Day Domestic Series is the domestic first class cricket competition of South Africa. The tournament is contested by teams from all nine provinces of South Africa. First contested as the Currie Cup from 1889–90, the tournament has u ...

season. He took 7 wickets for 186 in these two matches. In February 2015, Rabada took a record 14 wickets in a match for Lions against Dolphins, including 9 for 33 in the second innings. His 14 for 105 are the best figures in the franchise era of South African cricket. In February 2016, it was announced that Rabada had signed a short-term deal to play

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

in June and July of the English domestic season, passing up the opportunity of an IPL contract to gain experience in English conditions.South Africa bowler Kagiso Rabada to join Kent in June
''

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'', 18 February 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2016. He played in two

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It b ...

and six T20 matches for the county during his spell in England. In October 2018, he was named

Jozi Stars Jozi Stars were a city-based franchise team of the South African Mzansi Super League (MSL) Twenty20 cricket tournament. The team was based at the New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. Jozi Stars played in the first two editions of the MLS in 2 ...

' squad for the

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of the

Mzansi Super League The Mzansi Super League (MSL) was a Twenty20 cricket (T20) franchise league held in South Africa. The competition was established in 2018 by Cricket South Africa (CSA) as a replacement for the failed T20 Global League, but only two editions wer ...

T20 tournament. In September 2019, he was named in the squad for the

team for the

2019 Mzansi Super League The 2019 Mzansi Super League, also known as the MSL 2.0, was the second edition of the Mzansi Super League (MSL) Twenty20 (T20) franchise cricket tournament in South Africa. It started on 8 November and ended on 16 December 2019. Jozi Stars ...

tournament. In April 2021, he was named in

's squad, ahead of the 2021–22 cricket season in South Africa. In February 2017, Rabada was bought by the

Delhi Daredevils Delhi Capitals (formerly Delhi Daredevils) are a franchise cricket team based out of Delhi in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise is jointly owned by the GMR Group and the JSW Group. The team's home ground is Arun Jaitley Stadium, ...

team for the

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for INR 50 million. In January 2018, he was bought again by Delhi ( Delhi Capitals) in the 2018 IPL auction but was later ruled out of the season due to a back injury. He was retained again ahead of

2019 Indian Premier League The 2019 season of the Indian Premier League, also known as IPL 12, was the twelfth season of the IPL, a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. At one point other countries ...

by Delhi Capitals. He played 12 matches in the league stage before leaving for national duty. He picked up 25 wickets and become the highest wicket taker for DC and overall second highest wicket taker of that season. DC qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2012 IPL season. In the 2020 Indian premier League, he become the highest wicket taker of the season by picking up 30 wickets in 17 matches he played. In both seasons, Rabada played a vital role in his team's success. In the 2022 IPL mega auction, Rabada was bought by the

Punjab Kings Punjab Kings (PBKS) are a franchise cricket team based in Mohali, Punjab, that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Established in 2008 as the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), the franchise is jointly owned by Mohit Burman, Ness Wadia, Preity ...

for INR 9.25Cr.

International career

Rabada made his

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are th ...

debut for South Africa against Australia on 5 November 2014. Rabada made his

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

debut for South Africa against Bangladesh on 10 July 2015, achieving best figures of 6/16 on debut. He also became only the second player, after Taijul Islam, to take a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three w ...

on debut in an ODI match. He made his

debut for South Africa against India on 5 November 2015. In the fourth Test of England's 2015–16 tour of South Africa, he finished with figures of 13/144 helping his team win the game. In the process, he became the youngest South African to take a ten-wicket haul in a Test, and the figures were his team's second best ever, after

Makhaya Ntini Makhaya Ntini OIS (born 6 July 1977) is a South African former professional cricketer, who played all forms of the game. He was the first black player to play for the South African national cricket team. He reached second place in the ICC T ...

's 13/132. Rabada's first ten-wicket haul in a Test match came in 2016 against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

during the 4th Test at

Centurion A centurion (; la, centurio , . la, centuriones, label=none; grc-gre, κεντυρίων, kentyríōn, or ) was a position in the Roman army during classical antiquity, nominally the commander of a century (), a military unit of around 80 ...

. He took 13 wickets in the match, including two

five wicket haul In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman. Taki ...

s, and returned his best innings bowling figures of 7/112 in the England first innings. His second ten-wicket haul came in 2017 against

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

. During the first Test at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England ...

in South Africa's 2017 tour of England, Rabada was suspended for the second Test at Trent Bridge following an altercation with

Ben Stokes Benjamin Andrew Stokes (born 4 June 1991) is an English international cricketer who is the captain of the England Test team and plays for the England Twenty20 International (T20I) team. In domestic cricket, he represents Durham and has playe ...

after using "inappropriate language" after dismissing Stokes on the first day. As well as the five-fors he took in the matches when he took ten wickets, he had taken a total of five five-wicket hauls in Test matches, the first of which was earlier in England's 2016 tour of South Africa. He repeated the feat in Australia in 2016 at the WACA. He was the man of the match in this fixture. Rabada took 4/39 in the third ODI match of the South African tour in England in 2017. Following his performance in the match, Rabada became top ranked ODI bowler in the world displacing countryman Imran Tahir as per the ICC ODI bowler rankings and became youngest player (aged 22) to top the ODI rankings since Saqlain Mushtaq in 1998. During the first test of India's tour of South Africa in 2018 at Newlands, Rabada took 3/34 and 2/41 in the first and second innings. Following his performance in the match, Rabada became top ranked Test bowler in the world as per the ICC Test bowler rankings displacing England bowler James Anderson. In the second test match against Australia, Rabada took 11 wickets for 150 runs ultimately winning man of the match awards. This performance earned him top spot in ICC Test bowler rankings with 902 points, standing 15 points above James Anderson. He became the fourth South African bowler to cross 900 points after

Vernon Philander Vernon Darryl Philander (born 24 June 1985) is a South African former international cricketer. He was a right-handed bowling all-rounder; he had previously represented his country at under 19 level. He played for the South Africa national cricket ...

Shaun Pollock Shaun Maclean Pollock OIS (born 16 July 1973) is a South African cricket commentator and former cricketer, who was captain in all formats of the game. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers and allrounders of all time. A genu ...

and Dale Steyn. In July 2018 during the first test against Sri Lanka, Rabada surpassed the record of

Harbhajan Singh Harbhajan Singh (born 3 July 1980) is a member of parliament in Rajya Sabha and an Indian retired cricketer and cricket commentator, who played for the Indian national cricket team from 1998 - 2016. Singh was a right-arm spin bowler. In India ...

to become the youngest ever bowler to take 150 wickets in Test cricket and also became the third fastest South African to reach 150 test wickets in terms of matches (31). In 2018, he took the most wickets in Tests by any bowler, with 52 dismissals. In March 2019, Rabada took his 100th wicket in ODIs in the second ODI against Sri Lanka. In April 2019, he was named in South Africa's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. Rabada became only the 8th South African bowler to pick 200 Test wickets as Hasan Ali in the 1st Test of the South African tour of Pakistan in 2021. In September 2021, Rabada was named in South Africa's squad for the

2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the seventh ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament, with the matches played in the United Arab Emirates and Oman from 17 October to 14 November 2021. The West Indies were the defending champions, but were eventu ...

. On 6 November 2021, in South Africa's final match of the tournament, against

, Rabada became the first bowler for South Africa to take a hat-trick in T20I cricket. In January 2022, Rabada played in his 50th Test match, in the third match of the series against India. On Day 2 of the first test match of the series against England in August 2022, Rabada took his first five-for at Lord's which earned him a place on the coveted honours board. He is only the fourth South African bowler to achieve this feat since re-admission after

Allan Donald Allan Anthony Donald (born 20 October 1966) is a South African former cricketer who is also the current bowling coach of Bangladesh national cricket team. Often nicknamed 'White Lightning' due to his lightning quick bowling, he is considered ...

and

Other ventures

In 2020 Kagiso Rabada and Cameron Scott founded Kingdom Kome Productions, their first project is a short film called "The Ring of Beasts".

Personal life

Rabada's father is a doctor and his mother Florence is a lawyer. He is of

Venda Venda () was a Bantustan in northern South Africa, which is fairly close to the South African border with Zimbabwe to the north, while to the south and east, it shared a long border with another black homeland, Gazankulu. It is now part of t ...

and Tswana ancestry.

References

External links