Cape Town - AB de Villiers will in all likelihood lose his race to be fit for South Africa’s opening Test against Sri Lanka on Boxing Day at St George’s Park.
The injured Proteas captain last played back in July for the Barbados Tridents in the Caribbean Premier League and has since missed the national team’s Test triumphs over New Zealand (1-0) and Australia (2-1) and also the 5-0 ODI whitewash of the Aussies on home soil.
Faf du Plessis has led both teams in De Villiers’s absence, but was expected to hand over the leadership reins for the start of the Sri Lankan series.
However, although De Villiers had his first net session last week after his elbow surgery with the Titans sporting his new bat sponsor, the 33-year-old ruled himself out of playing in the T20 Challenge final this week.
“(Titans captain) Albie Morkel and (coach) Mark Boucher wanted me to play which boosted me to try and come back, but the surgeon said three months, not two months, so I’ve been a bit naughty,” De Villiers was reported as saying last week.
“I’ve tried to push it hard to get back on the park. Hopefully I’ll make the Test matches but we’ll see what happens in a week’s time. We’ll assess it as we go on but things change all the time.”
It would have been De Villiers’s only opportunity to get some much-needed gametime ahead of the Test series. After some further medical examinations too, the prognosis does not look promising and De Villiers could even miss the second Test too.
Should De Villiers officially be ruled out, it will place greater scrutiny on Du Plessis’s ball-tampering appeal hearing set for December 19.
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Du Plessis is appealing his initial sanction of being fined his entire match fee and being handed three demerit points by the ICC after being caught on camera sucking a sweet and rubbing the ball with his saliva in an alleged attempt to enhance swing during the second Test against Australia in Hobart, which South Africa won by an innings and 80 runs.
Michael Beloff QC has been appointed the judicial commissioner, and while the legal teams of both parties will attend the hearing in Dubai, du Plessis is set to join via telephone.
Du Plessis stands the risk of having his punishment increased at the heading by the judicial commissioner, which could ultimately result in a ban for the stand-in South African captain.
Such a scenario could leave the Proteas possibly without Du Plessis and De Villiers’s services for the series opener against Sri Lanka in Port Elizabeth.
This would not be ideal with the reserve batsman on the Australian tour Rilee Rossouw also still struggling with a foot injury that saw him fail to turn out for the Knights in the T20 Challenge upon return from Down Under.
The batting depth would further be put to the test as classy left-hander Stiaan van Zyl, who played in the last home Test against New Zealand, has since signed a three-year deal to play for English County Championship side Sussex that makes him ineligible to represent the Proteas.
National convenor of selectors Linda Zondi is expected to name the Test squad for the Sri Lankan series on Tuesday.