Dravid flies home on paternity leave

The Bangalore Royal Challengers' struggling campaign has received another setback with Rahul Dravid returning home to be with his wife for the birth of their second child. Dravid is expected to be in India for a few days and it is still unclear when he will return to South Africa.

Dravid has been the best batsman this season for Bangalore, leading the team charts with 144 runs at a strike-rate of 135.84. His absence leaves a hole Bangalore will struggle to fill as the squad is thin on proven Twenty20 domestic batting talent. His side have lost three of their four matches so far, and have a tough game against the in-form Delhi Daredevils on Sunday.

Dravid had been expected to miss a part of the IPL on paternity leave, and it was one of the reasons franchise owner Vijay Mallya gave for replacing him with new recruit Kevin Pietersen as captain for the second season.