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South Africa star AB de Villiers has left the IPL to return home and prepare for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2017. The 33-year old was part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s embarrassing campaign this season, one in which the team has won just two games and are currently languishing at the bottom of the IPL points table.
De Villiers himself wasn’t in the best of form, managing just 216 runs this season at an average of 27, with a solitary fifty from nine games. He missed the first two encounters due to a back injury, playing his first fixture against Kings XI Punjab where he scored an unbeaten 89. This remained his only fifty plus score for them this season.
Also read: IPL 2017: Ricky Ponting believes squad imbalance is reason for RCB's poor showing
The Bangalore franchise, runners-up in the previous edition to the Sunrisers Hyderabad, where touted as one of the favourites for this season. Their campaign, however, was dealt with severe injury blows: while Virat Kohli missed the first few games due to a shoulder injury, KL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan were ruled out of the entire tournament before playing even a single ball.
They have struggled both home and away, more so on their home ground because of the change in nature of the track at the Chinnaswamy. Despite the presence of de Villiers, Kohli, Chris Gayle and Shane Watson, as well as expensive buys like Tymal Mills in this auction, the team just couldn’t get going.They did a lot of chop and change in their batting order, sending the likes of Mandeep Singh and Watson up and down the order with the hopes of bringing some change to their fortunes. The youngsters couldn’t shine this time, with the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal, who shone brightly in the previous edition, failing to repeat his exploits on the changed Chinnaswamy surface this time around.
De Villiers will now captain the South African side with the aim of claiming the nation’s first major ICC title. The side will play an ODI series against England, before starting off their Champions Trophy campaign in the same country, come next month. His country-mates in the Delhi Daredevils, Chris Morris and Kagiso Rabada, also left the IPL to prepare for the ICC tournament.
RCB have just one game remaining, against the Delhi Daredevils, set to be held at the Feroz Shah Kotla on May 14.
Extra cover: IPL 2017: Chris Gayle issues apology for RCB's disappointing season
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