Solanki confirms Rabada available for Mumbai game: 'He has served his time and expressed regret'

South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada has returned to India to join his IPL side Gujarat Titans (GT) and is available to play the franchise's next game, against Mumbai Indians on Tuesday. GT's director of cricket Vikram Solanki said the day before the game that Rabada "has expressed regret" about testing positive for a recreational drug use which made him miss a month of IPL 2025, and that the fast bowler will "take his lessons" from this episode.

"Speaking about Kagiso, I'd like to just get a couple of things across," Solanki said. "The first of which would be that Kagiso has expressed regret at an error in judgement. 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. 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 part of our group, having him back at practice. He served his time.

"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. 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."

Rabada trained with the rest of the GT squad at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday evening, with fellow fast bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna, but for under half an hour before he sat under one of the umbrellas next to the nets. While he bowled, he was seen having chats with the head coach Ashish Nehra, who even put an arm around Rabada a couple of times in what seemed like a pep talk.

Once he finished bowled, Rabada sat next to his GT team-mate Rashid Khan, and was soon joined by Trent Boult, his team-mate from the MI franchises in the SA20 and MLC. Rabada then went on to have a chat with Akash Ambani, the owner of the MI franchise in T20 leagues.

Solanki agreed that off-field issues like suspensions and bans could "easily" distract a player.

"You are absolutely right, it is easy to get distracted," he said. "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. 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 the matter of form or it be on the matter of personal matters like this. We will be supportive of Kagiso."

While Rabada flew back home in early April to serve his one-month suspension, GT have placed themselves fourth on the points table as one of the strong contenders for the playoffs, with seven wins from 10 games. Even in Rabada's absence and their lead spinner Rashid Khan not having a great tournament (he averages 50.28 after 10 games), GT have emerged as one of the most formidable bowling attacks in the tournament, with Prasidh leading the Purple Cup list with 19 wickets, Siraj taking another 14, and left-arm spinner Sai Kishore not far behind with 12, while also holding an economy rate of 8.35 compared to Rashid's 9.51.

Solanki said the rest of GT's attack had "pulled together" in the absence of Rabada, for whom they had shelled out INR 10.75 crore in the auction.

"I think all of the bowlers have performed outstandingly," Solanki said of his attack. "Often you speak about batting and the obvious thing is partnerships in batting. But I think you've seen across the tournament that the bowlers have operated in partnerships as well, and that's very much the case.

"And what we found ourselves in as far as Kagiso's absence was that the rest of the group pulled together, it speaks volumes of that group that they've pulled together and been able to deliver the performance as they have."