Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Director of Cricket Mike Hesson is seeing AB de Villiers once again as the wicket-keeping option for this IPL season.
De Villiers was asked to don the wicket-keeping gloves last season and he had enjoyed the role. Hesson said they have two other options apart from him but the franchise won't name the final wicket-keeper for now.
"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 the gloves and in the field.
"We also have KS Bharat, he is a natural keeper, gives us different options as well," said Hesson in a video posted on the official Twitter handle of RCB.
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"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," he added.
Royal Challengers will begin their IPL 2021 camp on March 29 and De Villiers is set to join them on March 28, as confirmed by Hesson.
"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 said.
Hesson added that this year is different from last season as players are coming with good match practice unlike IPL 2020. "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 hand full of days ago. So, we had to prepare in slightly different ways."
RCB will play the opening match of IPL 2021 against the defending champions Mumbai Indians on April 9 in Chennai.
(With ANI Inputs)
