Kagiso Rabada doesn’t want to be the next Dale Steyn

22-year old South African bowler Kagiso Rabada, who has been making great strides at a young age, has been compared to his teammate bowler Dale Steyn as the Proteas gear up for their first Test against England at Lords. Ever since Steyn injured his shoulder November last year, the youngster has been perfectly filling up the pace spearhead’s shoes in the team. It has been seven months to the injury but Steyn has still not recovered from it, which is why he is not a part of the four Tests series against England.

Surprisingly, in Steyn’s absence, Rabada overtook him as his country’s highest-ranked Test bowler. The former on the other hand still needs another four wickets in Tests to grab his 241st wicket, and tie the record with Shaun Pollock, who is South Africa’s all-time leading wicket-taker in Tests. Rabada currently occupies the seventh position in RSA Tests bowlers and Steyn eighth. The youngster also performed well in the tenth edition of the Indian Premier League where he played for the Delhi Daredevils franchise.

However, Rabada considers Steyn as his senior and said that he doesn’t want to be the next Dale Steyn but wants to achieve all that latter has achieved. While speaking to the English media ahead of the first of the four Tests, the youngster said, “He’s a great bowler, one of the greatest of all time. I like to be myself. I don’t want to be the next Dale Steyn, but I’d love to achieve what he’s achieved – and even more if I can.”

South Africa will aim for a hat-trick 

The first Test gets underway at Lord’s on Thursday and Rabada, who has played 17 Tests, will be a key in South Africa’s attempt to win their third consecutive Test series in the English backyard. As for Steyn, it is still not clear when he will recover from the 7 months old injury.