AB de Villiers to miss IPL opener

AB de Villiers has revealed he won’t be playing the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s IPL opener due to a back strain.

The Proteas ODI skipper broke the news on Twitter on Tuesday morning, clearing up the speculation created after he was forced to sit out of the Titans’ crushing One Day Cup final victory against the Warriors on Friday.

It’s a disappointing setback for De Villiers, who was going to captain the side in the absence of the injured Virat Kohli. Shane Watson will take the reins for RCB’s opener against defending champions the Sunrisers Hyderabad, which gets underway on Wednesday. De Villiers is expected to be fit for their second home game against the Delhi Daredevils on Saturday, which was confirmed by coach Dan Vettori.

‘AB de Villiers has travelled well. However, he still has some minor discomfort and we felt that couple of days off would be best before we have him back in action. We hope to see him on the field in good form by 8 April,’ Vettori said.

De Villiers is one of the finest performers the IPL has witnessed, amassing 3 288 runs from 121 matches at an average of 39.14 and a strike rate of 149.04.

Really disappointed to be missing the opening game of the IPL tomorrow, good luck to @ShaneRWatson33 and the rest of the @RCBTweets boys!

— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) April 4, 2017