The stage is set for the World Test Championship (WTC) final, starting at Lord's on Wednesday. Ahead of the high-octane finale between South Africa and Australia, the big question is whether the Aussies will employ their creepy sledging strategy against the Proteas' pace spearhead, Kagiso Rabada.

Rabada was suspended in the middle of the IPL 2025 after testing positive for a recreational drug, reportedly cocaine. He had taken it in South Africa and returned home in the middle of the IPL, before releasing a statement apologising for setting the wrong precedent.

Rabada returned for the IPL later. However, the WTC final will be his first outing in South African Test whites since that drug controversy.

Responding to a question from the media about whether Australia would sledge Rabada, Australia skipper Pat Cummins said, "It’s not really our style. I’d be surprised if that came up."

Since the 2018 Sandpaper-Gate incident in South Africa, which led to a one-year ban on Steve Smith and David Warner, and then after the retirement of Tim Paine, Australia under the captaincy of Cummins has made a cautious effort to avoid engaging in sledging.

Cummins, meanwhile, said Test cricket is getting stronger even in the age of increasing franchise-based T20 leagues.

“In Australia, no. Each summer it seems to get stronger and stronger. The ticket sales for the Ashes are just berserk the last week. But that’s not the reality for many Test-playing nations and one of the beauties about Test cricket is playing in totally different conditions with different challenges. I’d hate Test cricket to turn into only a couple of nations," he added.

Asked if he saw Australia playing Tests against the likes of Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa in 25 years, Cummins said, "It is really hard to say. I hope so. But if we just let things play out, probably not. There needs to be some intervention and finding a way – maybe it’s dedicated windows for franchise cricket. I really hope so because they are cricket-loving nations as well. They’re always going to have good players and [offer] a tough challenge."

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