‘Baby AB’ steps onto int’l stage

Dewald Brevis will take a step onto cricket's big stage during Australia's white-ball tour of South Africa, which starts with the first of three Twenty20 internationals at Kingsmead on Wednesday.

Brevis, 20, was nicknamed 'Baby AB' for the way he modelled his game on that of retired South African star AB de Villiers.

He wears the same number 17 on his shirt and has the ability to hit big sixes, particularly in the area between midwicket and long-on.

He slammed a South African T20 record score of 162 off 57 balls in a domestic match last October.

Brevis is expected to make his international debut in the T20 series and will need to live up to the early hype about his career to secure a ticket to the 50-overs Cricket World Cup in India in October and November.

Brevis is part of an 18-man squad for a five-match one-day international series which follows the T20s. Only 15 players will go to the World Cup.