Kagiso Rabada 'heartbroken' over Test match ban, reveals teammate

Kagiso Rabada, the South African bowler who has been suspended for swearing at Ben Stokes is now ‘heartbroken,’ revealed Temba Bavuma. As a result, Rabada was awarded another demerit point and has been banned from the second Test against England at Trent Bridge. His suspension was sanctioned by the ICC for giving Ben Stokes a send-off on the opening day at Lord’s.

The Highveld Lions pacer was fined 15% of his match fee and handed one demerit point for this incident. Rabada already had three demerit points for an altercation with Niroshan Dickwella during the one-day international in Cape Town in February. The total of four points inside 24 months implied he is now automatically suspended for one Test.

“Rabada is an emotional character — he didn’t purposely act like that, but he was fully aware of the consequences,” Bavuma said after the end of day 3 of the 1st Test. “He is quite heartbroken, because he feels he has let down the team. But we fully understand it happened in the heat of the moment.”

James Anderson has mixed feeling regarding the ban

However, there seemed to be a measure of sympathy for Rabada from veteran England pacer James Anderson. Jimmy recollected the verbal dust-ups with the likes of Australia’s Mitchell Johnson and Michael Clarke, as well as a spat with India’s Ravindra Jadeja at Trent Bridge three years ago. And thus, Anderson had mixed feelings about Rabada’s ban.

His absence will also have little impact on South Africa’s transformation numbers, which don’t apply from game to game but do add up over the course of a season. The rule dictates to field a minimum average of six players of colour, of which two must be black Africans.

Meanwhile, Vernon Philander, who didn’t bowl on Saturday after being hit on the hand while batting, is expected to return to the attack on Sunday after scans showed severe bruising but no break.