South African pacer Kagiso Rabada has joined the Gujarat Titans in IPL 2025. He was picked up by the franchise for 10.75 crores. In the first game for GT, he had figures of 1 wicket for 41 against his former franchise Punjab Kings who posted 243 for five batting first.
The Titans themselves reached 232 in the chase and fell short of the target by just 11 runs. Barring the IPL 2025 season opener between KKR and RCB and the MI vs CSK match, every other match has seen scores of over 200.
Sunrisers Hyderabad posted 286/6 against the Rajasthan Royals in their 20 overs continuing their batting onslaught from the last year. Ishan Kishan scored an unbeaten ton while the likes of Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasen played important cameos taking the team to that big total.
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Call Our Game Batting, Not Cricket- Kagiso Rabada On T20 Cricket's Evolution
There have been talks about teams posting 300 batting first. SRH fell just short of that target which still looks a real possibility. Kagiso Rabada, one of the best pacers in international cricket going around, spoke about about the importance of maintaining a balance between bat and ball.
He had his first reaction when he was about the possibility of teams scoring 300 this season in the IPL. As many as 13 venues have been selected this season. Barring the Chepauk in Chennai and perhaps Lucknow and Jaipur, the other grounds are absolute belters for the batters.
"The game has to progress somehow, but I don’t think it can just get too flat, like every single game. It would take the fun out of it. You know, then you might as well call our sport Batting, and not Cricket. I have no issues with a few records being broken, that’s fine. High-scoring games are good, but so are low-scoring games. But you can’t have it tilting either side too dramatically, there needs to be a balance that is maintained between bat and ball" said Rabada.
He then spoke about how he maintains a calm head and what are his ways to stop the onslaught from the opposition batters. He said that the bowlers are still finding a way out to tackle the problem and that the best games are where the batters are made to earn their runs.
"Yes, because that’s the way the game is headed. You can’t sit back and complain about the conditions. You must do something about it as a bowler. However, the game of cricket as a whole would just be boring if you just saw high scores or low scores all the time. The most exciting games are the ones which hang in the balance, requiring batters to apply themselves when wickets fall and play really well to win matches for their teams, or bowlers to step up in the same manner. It shouldn’t be about just survival for either" the GT speedster added.
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Definitely Interesting- Kagiso Rabada On BCCI Lifting Saliva Ban
KG Rabada then spoke about the new rules that have been laid out by the BCCI ahead of the IPL 2025 season. The BCCI lifted the saliva ban and allowed the bowling team to use a new and dry ball after the 11th over of the second innings to counter the impact of dew.
"I guess so. Using saliva and sweat are two different aspects… they have different textures, though I can’t explain scientifically how it affects the ball. Let’s see how this IPL goes with saliva being used again. It’s definitely interesting" said Rabada on the previous saliva ban by the ICC.
He concluded by keeping a word on the Gujarat Titans pace attack. Besides Rabada, the team has the likes of Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma and Gerald Coetzee in their ranks. He further said that he is loving to work alongside Ashish Nehra.
The players have been given the freedom, and everything is well organized and chilled out to be honest, but there’s a lot of hard work being done behind the scenes. I’m really enjoying working with Ashish (Nehra). It’s a great bunch of lads with a nice bowling attack, with good pace, which will suit the Ahmedabad conditions" Rabada concluded saying.
Also Read: IPL 2025: MS Dhoni's blunt explanation on why he disagreed with Impact Player rule
