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Gujarat Titans director of cricket Vikram Solanki confirmed South African pace express Kagiso Rabada is available for their high-stakes fixture against five-time champions Mumbai Indians on Tuesday and is looking forward to playing the game "he loves".
Rabada has been cleared to return to on-field action after serving a one-month ban for testing positive for a recreational drug. On the eve of their fixture, Solanki revealed that the 29-year-old has expressed "regret" about his actions and will take "lessons" from this chapter of his life. "As far as tomorrow's match is concerned, he is available. I'd like to just get a couple of things across. The first of which would be that Kagiso has expressed regret at an error in judgment. He's made a telling statement. I read his statement, and I thought that his statement speaks volumes about the personality of the character that he is," Solanki said in the pre-match press conference. "He has expressed regret, as I said. But he is very much looking forward to getting back to playing the game he loves. He will take his, sort of, lessons from this, and we're just looking forward to having him back as part of our group, having him back at practice. He served his time," he added. According to ESPNcricinfo, Rabada trained with the rest of the Titans squad at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday evening. He bowled alongside Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna for nearly half an hour before occupying one of the seats under umbrellas next to the nets. When he was bowling, Rabada was seen conversing with the head coach Ashish Nehra, who put an arm around the Proteas pacer a couple of times. After he finished bowling, Rabada was joined by his teammate Rashid Khan and was soon joined by his teammate MI Cape Town compatriot Trent Boult. "The second thing I'd like to place on record is that as far as procedure and protocol is concerned, everybody that's involved in this episode, right from Kagiso, his representative, all matters, as far as requirements [go], have been followed to the letter. We try to be mindful of the emotion around Kagiso as well," he said. "But having said all of that, he's now back, having served the time to serve the suspension for 30 days. And what we're looking for now is for him to just be back doing what he loves and for him to be doing stuff that we appreciate him doing. And that's to be part of the team," he added. Solanki admitted that the off-field suspensions and issues Rabada is facing could "easily" distract a player. He assured him that the Titans would offer him support. "You are absolutely right, it is easy to get distracted. One of the things he's made very clear is that he doesn't want this episode to distract anybody. But as far as the team's concerned, he spoke very eloquently about the fact that this is something he's dealing with," he said. "As far as the team is concerned, the team will, of course, support it. It's our job to support the players we have, whether it be on a matter of form or on matters of a personal nature like this. We will be supportive of Kagiso," he added. (ANI)
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