Former South Africa cricketer Daryll Cullinan has said Australia will target Kagiso Rabada in the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) final. The highly anticipated game is scheduled to be played from June 11 at the Lord’s.
South Africa are gearing up for the WTC final for the first time and will be desperate to clinch the trophy. On the other hand, Australia are the defending champions and can become the first team to win the WTC title twice. One of South Africa’s key players in the match will be their pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada.
Kagiso Rabada was banned for a month for drug use
The Proteas’ fortunes will depend a lot on how their premier bowler performs in the competition. However, the build-up to the final is dominated by talks regarding Australia targeting the right-arm pacer over the drug ban.
Earlier this year, Kagiso Rabada was banned for a month for drug use during the SA20. He failed the doping test in January this year. He was notified about the result in April when he was in India for IPL and had to leave the tournament briefly. The Proteas star returned soon and continued playing for the Gujarat Titans in IPL 2025.
Unfortunately, Rabada is going to deal with – Daryll Cullinan on the pacer being sledged over the drug ban
With Rabada now gearing up for his first international match since the news broke out, many believe that Australia will target him in the upcoming WTC final. Ahead of the final, Cullinan said that Rabada will have to deal with it for the rest of his career and advised him to focus on taking wickets.
“Unfortunately, Rabada is going to deal with, for the rest of his career, comments being made relating to off-the-field matters, not only on the field but also by spectators. Only he can deal with it. The best would be just to take wickets.
“That’ll settle that side of things too, but I think it’d be naive to think that comments won’t be made and his attention brought to it, but it’s going to be something that he’s going to have to live with for the rest of his career, even if he’s taking wickets,” Cullinan told Hindustan Times when asked if Australia will target Kagiso Rabada mentioning his drug ban.
“But that’s something that he has to face. I think he’ll be fine with it, but I don’t think any cricketer or person would like to be in a working environment, be reminded about your indiscretions, so he’s going to have to live with it. As I said, good performances will go a long way to putting that to bed, but as long as he’s playing cricket, he’ll always be reminded of it,” he added.
Pat Cummins on sledging Kagiso Rabada:
Australia captain Pat Cummins has said that his team will not target Rabada in the upcoming WTC final. The Australian pace spearhead quashed the speculations and insisted that ‘it wasn’t their style’ while also saying that he would be surprised if Rabada is targeted by his team over the drug ban.
“It’s not really our style. I’d be surprised if that came up,” said Cummins.
