Royal Challengers Bangalore name Shane Watson as stop-gap skipper in IPL 2017

Royal Challengers Bangalore will be led by Shane Watson for the first few games in IPL 2017 following injuries to Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers

Shane Watson will be the interim captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the absence of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in the opening stages of the 2017 Indian Premier League. (Full IPL coverage)

Shane Watson will lead Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first few games of the 2017 Indian Premier League after injuries to Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. (Hindustan Times)

Shane Watson will lead an RCB side that has been ravaged by injuries. Kohli, who sustained a shoulder injury during the Ranchi Test against Australia, will be assessed for his fitness in the middle of April while KL Rahul has been ruled out of the tournament as he undergoes surgery on his shoulder.

RCB will kick-start the tournament on April 5 as they take on defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad at Uppal on Wednesday.

In Virat Kohli’s absence, the franchise had announced that AB de Villiers would lead the side for the first few games. However, during the domestic one-day competition in South Africa, de Villiers missed the first game for Titans due to a back injury and there was speculation regarding his availability.

However, according to reports, de Villiers trained with the side at the M Chinnaswamy stadium and coach Daniel Vettori said that the star South Africa batsman needed more time to recover from the injury.

Shane Watson has captained only once in his Twenty20 International career during Australia’s match against India in Sydney in January 2016.

With the bat, Shane Watson smashed 124*, the highest T20I score by a batsman in Australia but it went in vain as Australia lost by seven wickets to be whitewashed 3-0 in the three T20I series.