AB de Villiers' retirement will be felt most severely by South Africa's selectors, who will have to choose a World Cup squad without one of its most obvious inclusions.

Though they have a year to plan for the tournament, they have less than two months to think about their first post-de Villiers tour. This will mark the start of the preparatory phase for the World Cup and a rebuilding process in the longer format. South Africa visit Sri Lanka for two Tests, five ODIs and a T20 in July and August.

The Test side is familiar with playing without de Villiers' - he did not play a single red-ball international between January 2016 and December 2017 in which time South Africa played 17 Tests including nine away from home - but they will now have to look for a permanent answer to his absence. And the limited-overs' teams, particularly the ODI side, will need a swift solution and a few match-winners as they build towards the World Cup.

Here are the options that may come into the discussion when the selection panel meets in the coming weeks.

Temba Bavuma show his impressive temperament AFP

In Tests

Temba Bavuma: The diminutive middle-order batsman was the person who had to make way for de Villiers in December 2017. Although Bavuma had made useful contributions on South Africa's tours of England and New Zealand in 2017 and Australia in 2016, his conversation rate of fifties to centuries was a concern. Bavuma's progress was further stalled when he suffered a broken hand at the beginning of this year but he made a comeback during South Africa's March Tests against Australia, when they opted for seven batsmen in the line-up instead of six, and his unbeaten 95 at the Wanderers all but cemented his place. De Villiers' retirement provides Bavuma with a long leash and he is likely to feature in the starting XI for a significant period, provided he can make his opportunities count. He will need to focus on faster run-scoring, but his place in the side should be secure for the forseeable future.

Theunis de Bruyn: A prodigious talent, de Bruyn has only played five Tests since making his debut more than a year ago, and without much success. He was dropped from the XI after failing to cross 40 in the first two Tests against Australia and there was some speculation a Kolpak deal may have been on his radar but now that should change. Though de Bruyn will have to compete for a place in the team if South Africa opt for six batsmen, if they play seven, he will likely be the extra batsmen. De Bruyn needs to start translating his domestic success on the international stage but de Villiers' retirement may have opened the door for him to do that.

Heinrich Klaasen: With a first-class average of 45.28, it is not difficult to see how Klaasen was named in the Test squad to play Australia in March. And it was also not his first foray into the national set-up. Klaasen traveled as a reserve wicket-keeper to New Zealand a year before, in March 2017, but he is still waiting for his first Test cap. Klaasen is an aggressive batsman, who takes the game on, a quality South Africa will want in a successor to de Villiers. It won't hurt his cause that he also keeps wicket and can be both a back-up and a challenger to Quinton de Kock.