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Cape Town - South Africa Test captain AB de Villiers has officially been
ruled out of the tour to Australia next month, but has revealed he plans on
playing in the day-night Test in Adelaide.
De Villiers is in a race against time to be fit for that historic
match, after undergoing elbow surgery recently. Whether his idea is realistic
remains to be seen.
The batsman told FiveAA: "I'm holding onto that (hope)
a little bit. According to the surgeons and the doctors there's no chance.
"They did give me six weeks before rehab starts. I
always feel the rehab phase can be sped up a bit.
"So maybe after the six weeks, if I do fly over
straight away, I'll be there for the second Test match.
"There may be an opportunity to prepare during that
game – not play in it – and then be ready for the Adelaide Test, which would be
a dream come true to play in a day-night Test against Australia."
The surgery meant he missed the home Tests against New
Zealand, and also the ODI series against Australia, but he was most worried
about missing the Tests down under.
He added: "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do and
unfortunately I've got to sort this out.
"It came at a really bad time; there's one Test series you really don't want to miss out on and it's playing Australia in Australia."
