South Africa’s leading paceman Kagiso Rabada says it is time to move on from the euphoria of beating Australia in the World Test Championship final while admitting a belated major trophy success has come as a relief to his team.
Rabada will lead South Africa’s attack as they take on Australia in three Twenty20 clashes and three one-day Internationals starting in Darwin on Sunday.
"I think it was special, and I've done so many interviews on that since," Rabada said of South Africa’s victory over Australia at Lord’s in June.
"I think it's time to move on. I don't think we'll forget about that ever as a team, and South Africa won't ever (forget), but time to move on now." he told a press conference on Thursday.
The five-wicket win in the WTC final followed several frustrating near misses for South Africa in limited-overs World Cups.
"It was kind of like a relief. But the show moves on, and moving toward the T20 World Cup, I guess the approach will be a bit different. Now, you know, there's no fear of anything."
Rabada is relishing a reprisal of the rivalry between Australia and South Africa.
"It's always some hard cricket being played, some good cricket," he said. "Whenever we play Australia, I always feel like they get the best out of us, because they're sort of in our faces. And I guess we like that."
Rababa, who turned 30 in May, has not played since the WTC final in London.
"Thankfully, I've had quite a long break, so that's been awesome. Maintenance work consistently has to be done because the volume of cricket is quite a bit."
The Australia tour comes ahead of next year's T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, and the 2027 World Cup in Southern Africa, and South Africa hope the experience will benefit the young players in their squad.
"For me that's extremely exciting to see them raring to go. It's just about trying to see where we're at as a team, moving into almost like another generation," Rabada added.