Dubai: South African pacer Kagiso Rabada is all set to feature for the Delhi Capitals (DC) and took part in his first nets session on Monday (September 7) for the 13th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) in the UAE. He had a successful last season with the franchise where he took 25 wickets in just 12 matches.
Yesterday ➡️ On a rest day for the DC squad, a just-out-of-quarantine @KagisoRabada25 put in the hard yards to get back into the groove 💪🏻
— Delhi Capitals (Tweeting from 🇦🇪) (@DelhiCapitals) September 7, 2020
The 25-year-old South African completed his six days of quarantine on Sunday (September 6), and was back in training with the rest of the Delhi squad on Monday evening. “It feels good to be running in and to be with some teammates as well. It is of course some old teammates and some new ones,” he said post his first nets session with the franchise this season.
Speaking on the expectation of playing after having been off competition for the last five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rabada said it was a unique moment for everyone to be playing again now. “This (situation) is quite unique, not a lot of people get to do this. We’re in the middle of a desert, playing cricket it’s something that I didn’t think I would ever be able to do. So it’s a lot of fun also,” he said.
Rabada, the second-highest wicket-taker in the last season also commented on how lockdown gave him the opportunity to take a break from cricket. “It’s been a high volume of cricket in the past five years for me, but I really enjoyed the break at home. I was just chilling with my family, getting to see my friends (virtually) during lockdown. So yeah being home was the best thing,” he said.
Practice Match 1️⃣ 👉🏻 Done ✅#Dream11IPL #YehHaiNayiDilli pic.twitter.com/kawRFJapbB
— Delhi Capitals (Tweeting from 🇦🇪) (@DelhiCapitals) September 8, 2020
Speaking on how he feels ahead of the tournament he said, “I feel quite strong. I think I just need to bowl more and make sure I haven’t forgotten how to bowl (laughs). I need to keep up with the bowling practice, but otherwise, I feel healthy.”
Commenting about his team, who finished in the third position last year, Rabada said he’s hoping for Delhi to be the most consistent team. “We had a really good season, so I know that we can challenge and win this competition because we came really close last season, so mentally I guess that helps. But also, it is a new tournament so we have to start again and we’ve got a nice group put together nice team,” said Rabada, who has 31 wickets in his IPL career in just 18 matches.
“We have to start again and start the whole process, so hopefully we can get off to a good start but win at the end of the season we want to be the most consistent team and win at times when we really, really need to win,” he signed off.
The 13th edition of IPL is all set to begin from September 19 in the UAE. Mumbai Indians will take on Chennai Super Kings in the opening match, the full schedule was announced on Sunday (September 6).
