IPL 2017: Shane Watson to captain Royal Challengers Bangalore

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Bengaluru, April 4: Australian all-rounder Shane Watson has been named as the stand-in captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as regular skipper Virat Kohli will miss few matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 due to injury.

IPL schedule; List of players injured; RCB schedule

Kohli sustained a shoulder injury during a Test match against Australia in Ranchi recently last month. He is still not 100 per cent fit to play the 10th edition of IPL, which gets under way tomorrow (April 5) in Hyderabad. However, Kohli has joined his RCB team-mates in Bengaluru and trained with them. (Full list of squads)

RCB will face defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the opening match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. (Kohli's fitness to be assessed)

Last night (April 3), RCB's chairman Amrit Thomas announced that Watson will lead the team in Kohli's absence. Watson was bought by RCB at last year's players auction for Rs 9.5 crore.

"Virat Kohli, the RCB Captain will be missing the first few matches of the VIVO Indian Premier League owing to an unfortunate shoulder injury. His presence on field is dependent on him passing the fitness tests and we hope for a strong recovery for him. In the interim, Shane Watson, will lead the RCB team as the stand-in captain. Shane has been one of the top performers and a great mentor for the team, making him an ideal choice to lead the team this season till Virat is back on field," Thomas said.

"Virat who is a core pillar of the RCB team will be working closely with the RCB coach Daniel Vettori and mentoring the team to make sure the team hitting the field on April 5 and beyond is well prepared and motivated to play bold like always. We have a line-up of exceptional young batsmen who are strong assets to the team and we hope to see our bold team to come together to create new milestones this season," he added.

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