AB De Villiers joins Royal Challengers Bangalore bio-bubble in Chennai

South African batsman AB de Villiers has joined RCB's bio-bubble in Chennai ahead of their campaign opener against Mumbai Indians. The former Proteas skipper will join the rest of the team in quarantine for seven days before starting preparations for IPL 2021.

AB de Villiers is the second-most senior player in the RCB squad after skipper Virat Kohli. Kohli will be joining the team bio-bubble later on Thursday. De Villiers, 37, has been with Royal Challengers Bangalore since 2011 after shifting base from Delhi Capitals, where he played for three seasons. Meanwhile, RCB coach Simon Katich and pacer Navdeep Saini have completed their mandatory quarantine period.

RCB to play their first three opening matches in Chennai

As per the protocols, all cricketers (except those from the India-England series), support staff, and management entering the bubble will have to undergo a mandatory 7-day quarantine in their hotel rooms. Every individual is going to be tested multiple times during this period. Upon returning negative results, the cricketers will be allowed to begin their outdoor practice sessions. After India vanquished England in the ODI series, Virat Kohli had talked about the disputes of bio-bubble life. The Indian skipper admitted that it would be difficult for players to continue for long in such environment.

In 228 ODI games, de Villiers amassed 9,577 runs at an average of 53.5 and a strike rate of 101.1. He is the only batsman in ODI format to have completed a trio of 5,000-plus runs, 50-plus average, and over 100 strike rates in his career. In 169 IPL matches so far, he has scored 4849 runs with an average of 40.4. In 2017 ABD waived from captaining the national limited-overs teams, and in May 2018, he hung his boots from all formats of international cricket.

RCB is going to play the first match of the tournament against MI at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on April 9. Virat Kohli and the team will play their first three opening matches of IPL 2021 in Chennai.

IPL 2021 Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) entire squad

Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal, Adam Zampa, Finn Allen, Kane Richardson, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Navdeep Saini, RCB will play their first three opening leg matches of IPL 2021 in Chennai. Pavan Deshpande, Shahbaz Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Daniel Sams, Harshal Patel, Washington Sundar, Sachin Baby, Rajat Patidar, Kyle Jamieson, Dan Christian, Suyash Prabhudessai, KS Bharat.

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