Australia will start its Test series against South Africa as even ‘stronger favourites’ according to Kepler Wessels following Tuesday’s news that AB de Villiers will miss that November series because he requires surgery.
The South African Test and One-Day International skipper will undergo surgery next week to the troublesome elbow injury that is the result of ‘overload and overuse,’ according to the South African team manager Mohammed Moosajee.
Wessels said it was a massive blow for the Proteas ahead of a much-anticipated series.
“You can’t replace him. You need three players to replace him,” remarked the former South African captain who also played 24 Tests for Australia in the 1980s.
“If Mitchell Starc is fit and Josh Hazlewood is fit, then Australia will be stronger favourites. You can’t take AB de Villiers’ presence and his runs out of the equation and think you’re going to replace that. I’m not saying South Africa can’t win without him, but they will miss him,” Wessels added.
De Villiers underwent a fitness test yesterday as South Africa amped up preparations ahead of the five-match ODI series with Australia starting Friday. The South African camp was still optimistic he’d be ready for the series.
“The physio did strap up the elbow and he felt some relief with some of his shots, but the elbow pain has not relieved completely,” explained Moosajee.
“Knowing AB, the complete cricketer that he is, he wants to make sure none of his shots are restricted. With that in mind, we felt that the best decision for now would be to get surgical management and give him adequate time to recover so that it doesn’t hamper his career going forward.”
Since being formally named as SA’s Test captain, De Villiers has missed the two Tests against New Zealand and now the series against the Australians. He’s been tentatively earmarked to play in the series against Sri Lanka here over the festive season.
Faf du Plessis is likely to continue in the role as Test captain for that series Down Under.
A week ago Moosajee outlined how the injury was the result of ‘overload and overuse,’ citing the proliferation of domestic T20 tournaments as the major reason De Villiers had suffered the injury. In addition to his international commitments, De Villiers is also one of the stars of the Indian Premier League - where he is paid in the region of $2 million (about R27m) - and this year he added a stint in the Caribbean Premier League to his schedule following which his injury was diagnosed.
A disappointed Russell Domingo bemoaned the state of the cricket calendar last week: “At the end of the day, we as a national side sit with issues in that we are sort of keeping guys fit to go and play in other tournaments, which is painful for me. Guys are playing too much and something needs to be done about it.”
Wessels said Tuesday that at this stage there was very little the International Cricket Council (ICC) could do: “The more you see this sort of thing happening to world class players and with the tournaments that are available to them to play, that’s something (the ICC) need to look at but whether they can control it or not is another issue.”
The Star