Kagiso Rabada has been to a number of World Cups since making his debut in the senior Proteas team in 2014, but is yet to return home with any silverware.
In his Under-19 days, Rabada – along with Aiden Markram and Andile Phehlukwayo – won the junior World Cup for the first time in South Africa’s history.
With the senior squad, though, he has had no luck – just like the many generations of great fast bowlers before him.
The Proteas have a different pressure associated with World Cups, which has developed over many failures on cricket’s biggest stage.
“All this drama outside about South African cricket and World Cups ... we’re not paying attention to it really,” said Rabada.
“Having been to World Cups and not winning silverware, it’s disappointing ... I won’t lie.
“I’m willing to make it happen, we’re all willing to make it happen.
“Winning a World Cup is something that I would love to do. It’s something every player that’s in the set-up would love to do.
“The only thing going there, once the squad is announced, is to win it.”
In this day and age where there are numerous franchise T20 tournaments happening simultaneously with international cricket, it is important to manage players’ workloads.
That becomes even more important for fast bowlers due to the physically taxing nature of the role.
Rabada described workload management as vital, especially going into the World Cup.
“It’s important to identify periods of rest, because there’s so much cricket happening at the moment,” he said.
“You don’t want to go to the World Cup overcooked … You don’t want to go to the World Cup or any series undercooked or overcooked.
“It’s about finding the right balance.”
Unlike some of his teammates, Rabada will take no part in the ongoing Caribbean Premier League or The Hundred in England.
Instead, the 28-year-old is spending the remaining six-and-a-half weeks left before the World Cup starts, honing his skills in relatively calmer environments, such as the Proteas camps, which started in Durban last month.
“We had a camp in Durban and we just came off a camp in Pretoria. We see really good things coming out of these camps, and we have another one coming up just before the series against Australia,” said Rabada.
“The (World Cup) squad hasn’t been announced yet, but the guys are really eager. We can’t wait to go there. Whoever is chosen, I’m sure everyone can’t wait to go and play some competitive cricket.
“This process, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed personally. I’m looking forward to keep going on with the process and just being competitive.”
The effectiveness of the camps and all the preparation will be put to the test when Australia tour SA later this month.
Rabada reckons they will be able to gauge the progress they have made as a team since their 3-0 series whitewash of the Netherlands last summer.
The three T20 internationals against the Australians are at Kingsmead on 30 August, and September 1 and 3, with the five-game one-day international series starting in Bloemfontein on September 7.
“We’ve challenged the way we want to play, we’ve challenged how we want to get better as a unit,” Rabada said.
“Australia will be perfect practice to see where we are with that, and to continue making tweaks.”
The Proteas World Cup squad will be announced on September 5, while the tournament is scheduled to start on October 5 in India.
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