Publications
Partners
Cape Town - AB de Villiers is not the only danger-man in the Proteas line-up, Australia coach Darren Lehmann has said.
It's not certain whether De Villiers will face Australia in the upcoming five-match ODI series.
The South African captain will miss Sunday's one-off ODI against Ireland in Benoni as he recovers from an elbow injury and his availability for the series against Australia will be subject to him passing a fitness test.
While De Villiers is always South Africa's key player, Lehmann noted that the Proteas have quality batsmen all round.
"I think (Quinton) De Kock, (Hashim) Amla, (JP) Duminy, (David) Miller, (Dale) Steyn, (Kyle) Abbott, (Faf) Du Plessis - all those will argue that they are all big quality players," Lehmann said.
Should De Villiers be ready, the Australians have devised a few plans to counter the South African skipper.
"We know we have to curtail AB at some stage, but he is a class player. He is going to get some runs, it’s just the amount of runs. Hopefully it’s not too many," said Lehmann.
"We got our plans in place for him, hopefully they work and if they don’t we have to change them very quickly. We need to keep him down and the top order is going to be key to win the series."
De Villiers has a stellar record against the Aussies, having played 26 matches with an average of 59.52.
However, the 32-year-old didn't have a solid series against the Australians in the Caribbean in June, making scores of 22 and 39 in two innings.
De Villiers hasn't played an ODI since the Caribbean, as he missed out on the New Zealand Test series and will miss the one-off friendly between Ireland due to injury.
Fixtures:
Friday, September 30: 1st ODI, South Africa v Australia, SuperSport Park - 13:30
Sunday, October 2: 2nd ODI, South Africa v Australia, Bidvest Wanderers - 10:00
Wednesday, October 5: 3rd ODI, South Africa v Australia, Kingsmead - 13:30
Sunday, October 9: 4th ODI, South Africa v Australia, St. George’s Park - 10:00
Wednesday, October 12: 5th ODI, South Africa v Australia, Newlands - 13:30
