Cape Town: South Africa’s worrisome injury-list has been lengthened after wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock was ruled out for up to four weeks with a wrist injury, officials said on Monday.

De Kock joins stalwarts Faf du Plessis, Dale Steyn and AB de Villiers on the sidelines, though the latter is expected to resume training in the next few days.

De Kock was injured during South Africa’s heavy nine-wicket loss to India in the second match of their six-game series in Pretoria on Sunday which the hosts lost to go down 2-0 ahead of the third fixture in Cape Town on Wednesday.

“Quinton suffered an extreme blow to the left wrist while batting in the second ODI on Sunday and felt severe pain and discomfort,” team manager Mohammed Moosajee said in a media release from Cricket South Africa.

“Further investigation revealed severe bony bruising to the area, with associated swelling around the tendon in the wrist.

“This type of injury will require between 2-4 weeks to heal, which subsequently rules him out of the remainder of the ODI and T20 series against India.” South Africa already have uncapped wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen in their squad.

Du Plessis (finger), Steyn (heel) and De Kock will now face a race against time to be fit for the first of four home tests against Australia that start on March 1.

South African batting coach Dale Benkenstein has, meanwhile, conceded that their batsmen have been unable to read Indian wrist spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav during the ongoing ODI series as it is taking time to get adjusted to their change-ups.

“The tough thing is you are playing against two wrist spinners, and not a lot of players have played against. It does take time to get used to their change-ups and their variations,” Benkenstein sounded helpless.

“Their spinners are very good, obviously. Earlier, Anil Kumble was the one who could really spin the ball away from the bat. He bowled pretty quick and the ball would come on to the bat. But these guys (Chahal and Yadav) are a lot slower. We’ve had a good look at them in the two games (so far) and I’m sure our performances will improve as the series goes on,” he said.

The Proteas have got two wrist spinners to create match simulation but comfort facing them won’t happen overnight. “The guys were in the nets and we’ve got two wrist spinners, so they were practising against them. But things don’t turn around overnight. So, there isn’t much time to practice but I don’t think today we got out to the spinners bowling us out. I think we had some soft dismissals there.”

Benkenstein said that the slow pace of the Indian spinners made all the difference. “The challenge lies in the fact that they bowl very slow. Our spinners bowl very fast. Even on domestic wickets, we bowl pretty quick and it’s so much easier to get runs (when that’s the case). To be fair, in South Africa we don’t get a lot of spin. So, this is obviously an issue.”