Kagiso Rabada is free to face Australia. This is the staggering record superstar will take into Lord's final
There's a major weapon standing in the way of Australia in its pursuit of back-to-back World Test Championship titles and that weapon is Kagiso Rabada, who on Monday was cleared to play in the Lord's decider beginning on June 11.
The formidable South African fast bowler revealed in a statement on Saturday that he was serving a suspension for testing positive to "a recreational drug".
Two days later, the South African Institute for Drug Free Sport (SAIDS) confirmed that Rabada only had to serve a backdated suspension of one month, which began on April 1 and is therefore now complete.
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So although for a brief period of time it appeared that Australia's batters may not have to take stance and dread the sight of Rabada steaming in at the home of cricket, that is exactly the scenario set to face Pat Cummins and his men.
Rabada isn't the only member of the South African bowling attack capable of causing damage at Lord's — left-arm orthodox spinner Keshav Maharaj has a tidy Test record, and towering left-arm quick Marco Jansen has made a magnificent start to his Test career — but Rabada is the main obstacle standing in Australia's way.
Kagiso Rabada in action at the Gabba in December 2022. Getty
In Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander, Rabada and to a lesser degree Kyle Abbott, the Proteas were spearheaded by a unit of terrific fast bowlers in the 2010s.
Rabada, 29, is the only one in that mix still playing Test cricket, and although Jansen has picked up 73 wickets at an average of 21.76 and a strike-rate of 37.4 from 17 Tests, South Africa's fast-bowling quality beyond its two main pacemen is a point of concern.
Rabada has a frightening Test record.
From 70 Tests, the right-arm quick has taken 327 wickets at an average of 22.00.
And of the 86 men in history who've captured 200 or more Test wickets, Rabada's strike-rate of 39.44 is unmatched. The next best is that of Indian pace ace Jasprit Bumrah, who on average has claimed his victims every 42.09 balls, followed by the strike-rates of Steyn (42.38), Waqar Younis (43.49), Cummins (46.31), Malcolm Marshall (46.76), Allan Donald (47.02), Mitchell Starc (48.52) and Fred Trueman (49.43).
From the 10 Tests Rabada has played in the current World Test Championship cycle, spanning 2023-2025, he's chalked up 47 wickets at an average of 19.97 and a strike-rate of 37.89.
Across the 10 Tests he's played against Australia, he's taken 49 wickets at an average of 23.08 and a strike-rate of 39.9.
And on English shores, where South Africa will try to wrestle the mace from Australia's grip, he's hauled in 30 Test wickets at an average of 26.06 and a strike-rate of 41.8.
The next one might surprise a few. No Australian bowler in the selection mix for the World Test Championship final — not Cummins, not Starc, not Josh Hazlewood, not Nathan Lyon, and not Scott Boland — has taken a Test five-for at Lord's.
Rabada has, and his name is etched on the Lord's honour boards to prove it.
Kagiso Rabada greets a crowd in Centurion in December 2023. Getty
He ripped through England with figures of 5-52 in the English summer of 2022.
The ICC rankings say a lot about the brilliance of Rabada and the Proteas' lack of quality bowling depth. Rabada sits second in the Test bowling rankings, ahead of all Australians and behind only Bumrah. Jansen is the only other South African in the top 10, and the only other Protea in the top 42 is Maharaj.
Rabada has an intriguing history with Australian cricket.
On his first Test tour Down Under, as a 21-year-old in the 2016-17 summer, he bowled the tourists to victory in Perth in the opening match with a fourth-innings 5-92. Shaun Marsh, Steve Smith, Adam Voges, Mitch Marsh and Starc were the men he knocked over.
Faf du Plessis (left) and Kagiso Rabada at a press conference after the 2016-17 Perth Test between South Africa and Australia, dominated by a 21-year-old Rabada. Getty
Australia's 2018 tour of South Africa was rocked by the ball-tampering scandal, but it was also rocked by a series of other ugly incidents, including a physical altercation involving Rabada. In Port Elizabeth, the firebrand fast bowler claimed Smith's wicket and delivered an explosive send-off, shouting in the then Australian captain's face and bumping into him.
Rabada was hit with a two-match ban, but the ban was scrapped on appeal. That freed him to play a fortnight later in Cape Town, the scene of the ball-tampering saga.
And as recently as Monday, former Australian Test captain Tim Paine unleashed over the handling of Rabada's drug ban.
Lord's awaits. South Africa needs him, and Australia is fearing him.
