Mike Hesson expects AB de Villiers to keep wickets for RCB in IPL 2021

Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) Director of Cricket, Mike Hesson has said that star player Ab de Villiers will be a real wicket-keeping option for the franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, scheduled to start from April 9.  

With the inclusion of Mohammed Azharuddeen, KS Bharat and Finn Allen, RCB have a plethora of option when it comes to wicket-keeping duties but whenever de Villiers has kept wickets for the franchise, it has provided a good balance to the outfit. The former South Africa captain had donned the gloves in a few IPL 2020 matches as well.  

Hesson said that de Villiers is expected to keep for a few matches for RCB in IPL 2021 but refused to commit a name for the wicket-keeping duties for the entire season. 

“AB de Villiers donned the wicketkeeping gloves in a few matches last year and he is expected to do the same this year if it fixes the balance of the playing XI," said the former New Zealand cricket coach in a video posted by the official Twitter handle of RCB. 

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"We were delighted with the fact that AB de Villiers loved wicketkeeping and he embraced it. He wanted to continue doing it, he is a real option. We now have a couple of other wicketkeeping options which is great. Mohammed Azharuddeen is a natural athlete with gloves and in the field. We also have KS Bharat. He is a natural keeper (and) gives us different options as well,” he added. 

"We are not going to make the commitment now to you guys as to who will do what. We are really pleased with the options we have got and AB is certainly one of those.” 

RCB's training camp will begin next week on Monday (March 29) ahead of their season opener against MI. De Villiers is scheduled to arrive in India on March 28. 

"We have got players arriving all the way through till April 1. Finn Allen will be playing in T20I in New Zealand on April 1 and then he will come the day after... ABD arrives on 28," he earlier said.  

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"It is very different than the last year where we had everybody together for a long period of time on the back of a period where the guys had not trained or played. So, this time it is different, we got players playing international cricket over here and overseas and domestic cricket up until a handful of days ago. So, we had to prepare in slightly different ways,” he added. 

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 commences from April 9.