T20 World Cup 2024 | "Can't judge their form on wickets we have played on": Rabada backs Klaasen, Stubbs

Kagiso Rabada (Pic: File Pic)

South Africa's lead pacer Kagiso Rabada wants to see "competitive scores" ahead in the Super 8 stage of the T20 World Cup 2024.

West Indian pitches are more consistent in nature compared to the drop-in decks being used in the US leg of the T20 World Cup 2024.

The New York track offered varies bounce to bowlers, which made it difficult to score runs for batsman. The Super Eight matches will be played on the Caribbean tracks where high-scoring games can be expected.

"I do expect that conditions are going to level up because you had the drop-in pitches in the USA. You never really know how they're going to play," said Rabada on the eve of South Africa's final Group D match against Nepal here.

"Now, you've actually got squares that have been there for years, here in these venues. And you'll probably see more competitive scores," he added.

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Rabada said balanced playing surfaces are important to ensure an equal contest between bat and ball.

"You want to get a game and find pitches where you have enough in it for the bowlers and enough in it for the batters.

"That's essentially what a cricket game is. Otherwise, you might as well just call it batting or you might as well call it bowling," he explained.

The 29-year-old cited the example of the match between Australia and England at Barbados on June 8 to underline his point.

"You look at the game between Australia and England, where 200 played 150. So, if you bat well in these conditions, you can still reach 200," he said.

Ahead of the Super 8 matches, Rabad also hopes that Proteas' batsmen Heinrich Klaasen and Tristan Stubbs will regain their form where they strugled during the group stage matches.

"You can't really judge their form on wickets that we've just played on. As much as it's not an excuse, common sense would prevail. But in saying that, no one's got any demons. Everyone's moving forward. We play the conditions as we see them. And on our day, we know the sky's a limit in terms of batting", he elaborated.

Nepal's star spinner Sandeep Lamchhane is all set to feature in the T20 World Cup 2024 match against South Africa after landing in the St. Vincent. Earlier his US visa was denied following the rape case charges on him for which he was recently found acquitted.

The ICC has approved him as a late addition to the Nepal T20 World Cup 2024 squad.

Rabada said it will be a challenge for his batters to negate a "mystery spinner" like Lamichhane. "Yeah, he's a mystery spinner, so any mystery spinner is going to be tough to play. But I know the guys are really looking forward to facing that challenge," he added.

(With PTI Inputs)