South Africa Play Down AB de Villiers Struggles Niggle

South Africa Play Down AB de Villiers Struggles Niggle

The South African camp have played down AB de Villiers's struggles as concerns grow over the Proteas captain's form and fitness following the defeat to Pakistan at Edgbaston on Wednesday (June 7).

Having scored just four runs in South Africa's Champions Trophy opener against Sri Lanka over the weekend, de Villiers recorded the first golden duck of his international career as his side went down by 19 runs to Pakistan in a rain-shortened match.

To make matters worse, the 33-year-old appeared to be carrying a hamstring problem while he was in the field, raising the prospect that he could miss Sunday's clash with India at The Oval, which South Africa need to win to stay in the competition.

Asked if he was worried about de Villiers, coach Russell Domingo said: "No, not at all. He's a quality player. Everybody gets a first-baller, it's just taken him 200 games. I suppose there are always going to be question marks, but I have no concerns about AB de Villiers.

"Obviously he did pick up a little bit of a niggle with his hamstring today, but the medical team will look at him. I can't comment on it until they have had a look at it. But I'm by no means concerned. I'm expecting him to put in a big performance on Sunday. He's that type of player; that when the team needs him he'll turn it up on Sunday. I'm sure about that."

Despite the fact that he has put his Test career on hold in order to focus on winning a global one-day tournament, de Villiers has appeared from the outside to be lacking his usual zest, begging the question whether something might be amiss.

"I don't think so," said Morne Morkel. "It's a big tournament for him, like all of us. We're hungry to take this trophy back home. It's his first first-ball duck in over 200 games so he is only human. As teammates we need to stand up and take responsibility as well - it's not all on AB's shoulders. But I think he's still hungry to play."

South Africa's team management planned to assess de Villiers' injury on Thursday morning.