Kwena Maphaka grows up fast

“The biggest thing for me in the winter was working on my game. After not playing in the IPL, I wanted to knuckle down leading into a massive summer.” - Kwena Maphaka

Telford Vice / Cape Town

KWENA Maphaka turned up at a book launch on a frigid Joburg night earlier this month looking older than someone who, until just more than four months previously, had been a teenager.

If you didn’t know he was among the most exciting fast bowlers anywhere in cricket you might have sized him up as someone on a first date determined to convince the parents that he was an utterly proper young man.

He wore a baseball cap properly. As in pulled to the midline of his brow, neither riding high on his crown nor too low for us to see his face properly. The cap’s peak was pointed firmly front and centre, not behind his head or yanked to the side.

A pair of demure gold spectacles framed his eyes. We could see the collar of a neatly buttoned polo shirt, which was under an off-white crewneck sweater, which itself was under a roomy brown leather jacket. Below all that was a pair of baggy blue jeans.

It was as if Maphaka had come dressed as one of his uncles. Gently ribbed about that, he said with a slow smile he was “trying a new look”.

Maphaka didn’t look anything like Kagiso Rabada, who wasn’t there. But, wherever he was, he would have looked sharp. Rabada seems to be in classy designer everything everywhere he appears these days. So, when next Maphaka sees Rabada, best he take s a look at his shoes. Because he might have to fill them for a significant chunk of the coming summer.

CSA confirmed on Sunday that Rabada would miss the three home ODIs South Africa will play against Australia from September 24 to 30 because of a hamstring injury, the severity of which has yet to be officially detailed. That has cast doubt over the spearhead’s availability for the three Tests against the Aussies from October 9 to 31.

Rabada has played 73 Tests and taken 340 wickets at 22.03 in 73 Tests, which makes him South Africa’s leading active bowler. Two Tests into his career Maphaka has claimed three wickets at 56.66. How did he feel about the prospect of trying to replace the undisputed leader of the attack with eight home Tests looming against Australia, England and Bangladesh?

“I really hope KG is back in time,” Maphaka told a press conference on Monday. “But if that doesn’t happen it’s one of those things where somebody has to step up. And if that’s me I’m really confident in my abilities.

“I’ve led a bowling attack before with the Lions, and with South Africa’s under-19s, and I’ve been in the Proteas team for a bit now. I think I’ll be able to do the job if I’m asked to do so.”

Nevermind looking like someone older than his years, Maphaka sounds it, too. Does his bowling back that up?

He played just two first-class matches for the Lions in the past two seasons, but he was the leading wicket-taker at the 2024 under-19 World Cup in South Africa. Maphaka’s 21 strikes at an average of 9.71 and an economy rate of 3.81, and the fact that he became the first bowler to take three five-wicket hauls in a single edition of the competition, made him the player-of-the-tournament. But that was then. What about now?

Maphaka spoke from Windhoek, where he is part of South Africa’s squad for a T20 triseries involving the hosts and Zimbabwe. He took 1/24 off four overs against the Zimbos on Saturday. Thirteen of his 24 deliveries were scoreless. Of the 11 that did yield runs, just two of them were hit for four. In the 17 overs he bowled in two 50-over games between the England and South Africa A teams in June, Maphaka took three wickets — all of them in the top four — for 72 runs.

But it’s what Maphaka has been doing outside of matches that may be more instructive about his state of readiness to fill a Rabada sized and shaped hole. Having spent the entire 2026 IPL in Rajasthan’s dugout without getting a game, Maphaka came home with a mission in mind.

“The biggest thing for me in the winter was working on my game. After not playing in the IPL, I wanted to knuckle down leading into a massive summer.”

What did he focus on trying to hone?

“My consistency. I was decent in T20s but there was a lot of work to do in the longer formats that would also help in T20s. We worked on my run-up. But the biggest thing was making sure I can hit an area as consistently as possible. I feel that I’ve done that so far.”

Assisting Maphaka to do that were Piet Botha and Allan Donald, South Africa’s and the Lions’ bowling coaches. Two more informed bowling minds you would struggle to find.

Of course, this being South Africa, Maphaka will know he is far from the only fast bowler who might crack the nod should Rabada not make his way back in time. So it helps his chances that he has room to breathe in Namibia, where an experimental squad does not include Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi, Corbin Bosch, Wiaan Mulder or Codi Yusuf — who all played Tests last year. Then again, Duan Jansen, Eathan Bosch and Nqobani Mokoena are there, as was Lutho Sipamla before he was ruled out after hurting a hamstring in Saturday’s match. Andile Simelane was called up in his place. That said, few of those bowlers are in Maphaka’s league of pace and potential. He has the edge on most of the chasing pack.

“Every opportunity you get to be out on the field representing your country is massive, especially with some of the bigger players not on this tour,” he said knowingly. “It’s a chance for me to go out there, show my skill, and put in some really good performances. Hopefully that holds me in good stead going forward.”

It’s a good time to be Kwena Maphaka. He would have felt how good when he looked around the room at that Johannesburg book launch. Lucas Radebe, who played 70 matches for Bafana Bafana, 113 for Kaizer Chiefs and 201 for Leeds United, was there. As was Janine van Wyk, whose 185 appearances for Banyana Banyana make her the most internationally capped African footballer, male or female. And Ayabonga Khaka, a starkly different but no less skilful bowler than him.

Maphaka rubbed shoulders with all that greatness comfortably, and with good manners and grace. Like the utterly proper young man he is, he knows where he belongs.

Cricbuzz