South Africa's AB de Villiers has pulled out of the Twenty20 series against New Zealand

AB de Villiers has withdrawn from South Africa's squad for the Twenty20 series against New Zealand.

The wicketkeeper-batsman cited exhaustion as the reason for his request to be excluded from the three-match series, which begins at Durban on Friday.

Justin Ontong has been named as his replacement while it had already been announced that Faf du Plessis would be captain to reduce the workload on de Villiers.

"It's been an exhausting few months and I feel that I need some extra rest before the test series," said de Villiers.

"It's for this reason that I have put in the request and I'm grateful to the Proteas team management for supporting this decision."

National convenor of selectors Andrew Hudson said: "Justin has been in our limited overs plans for some time now and he has underlined his worth during the recent Momentum One-Day Cup when he excelled as a finisher for the Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras.

"As we all know he is also an outstanding fielder with his direct hits and a more than useful spin bowler.

"We are fortunate to have a player of his calibre to replace AB and the loss of one is certainly an opportunity for the other."

Source: http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12040_8340796,00.html

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