South Africa pacer Kagiso Rabada has given credits to his “hard and relentless work” for becoming the third fastest bowler to reach 200 Test wickets.
Rabada on Thursday achieved the feat during the first Test against Pakistan. He reached the milestone of 200 Test wickets after bowling 8,154 deliveries which made him the third fastest to the milestone behind Waqar Younis (7,725) and Dale Steyn (7,848).
“It’s a massive feat to be included among a list of such names. When you start playing you don’t ever think you will be on such a list and have such statistics,” Rabada was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.
“I don’t think there is a magic answer. It’s just hard work and spending time on your craft and seeing where you can get better and analysing it. It hasn’t all been easy,” he said.
Rabada was the top-ranked Test bowler in the world in January 2018 and is currently sixth on the International Cricket Council’s rankings. He reached 200 wickets during the third day of South Africa’s first Test against Pakistan in Karachi.
“You find yourself trying to perfect something that might seem so simple but it’s constant repetition and hours and hours of work. It’s being relentless with that and trying to see how much better you can get and finding ways. It’s hard and relentless work,” he said.
Rabada achieved the feat on Day Three of the first Test against Pakistan after he picked up the wicket of Hasan Ali. Rabada showed Ali the pavilion’s way as he rattled his stumps at his individual score of 21 for which the latter consumed 33 deliveries.
The 25-year-old has required just 44 matches to achieve the scalp 200 wickets in the longest format of the game, making him the second fastest South Africa bowler to reach the milestone.
Rabada also has 117 ODI and 31 T20I wickets to his name for which he has played 75 and 26 matches respectively.
Overall, Sri Lanka legend Muttiah Muralitharan holds the record for being the leading wicket-taker in Test cricket. Muralitharan has 800 wickets to his name and is followed by Shane Warne (708), Anil Kumble (619), James Anderson (606) and Glenn McGrath (563).