When Kagiso Rabada broke into the South African Test team, four years ago, most of his team-mates would fondly call him a ‘kid’. All of 20, the youngster had pace and aggression, which made him stand out.
However, when it came to ‘irritating’ a batsman, Rabada was always at it - not only by his fiery spells, but also in war of words.
Not someone who likes to keep calm and quiet, Rabada has, over, the years, been involved in various heated arguments with the opposition batsmen.
And at the Maharashtra Cricket Association International Stadium on Thursday, he made it a point to ‘distract’ Cheteshwar Pujara with his banters.
And those continuous exchange of words finally yielded result as Rabada managed to dismiss Pujara - who was in good touch - for 58.
At the end of the day’s play, Pujara, however, could not recollect the conversation they had in the middle, but admitted that for a batsman it is important to not get distracted.
“I can’t remember what he said. But he is someone who always likes to say something to the batsmen,” Pujara said.
“As a batsman, I always know that he tries to disturb my concentration, not just him but any bowler who passes a comment (as you sledge to disturb batsman’s concentration), I try and avoid what they try and say,” Pujara said.
The seasoned Indian batsmen also admitted that the focus should only be on the batting and not on anything else.
“If you are in your zone, you hardly hear what they are trying to say as you are too much focussed on what you want to do as batsman. You always communicate with your partner what you want to do so when you are in your own zone, you miss out what they are saying,” Pujara said.
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