Former South Africa and Royal Challengers Bengaluru legend AB de Villiers recently did not include good friend and erstwhile RCB teammate Virat Kohli in his top 5 cricketers’ list. The de Villiers-Kohli duo shared plenty of memorable moments together across several seasons in RCB.
The Proteas legend also elaborated on why he chose Sachin Tendulkar over Virat and went on to apologize to the latter after being reminded by Adil Rashid that he had missed out on mentioning the Indian luminary’s name. The 41-year-old further opined why he found each of Jacques Kallis, Mohammad Asif, Shane Warne and Andrew Flintoff unique by recounting personal experiences of taking them on in the past.
“[Jacques] Kallis, [Andrew] Flintoff, Mohammad Asif, [Shane] Warne and Sachin with the crowds. The way he (Sachin) was received when he walked out to bat — everything would come to a standstill. Beautiful to watch him bat. Virat sorry, Sachin. That’s why such questions are so tough to answer,” de Villiers shared on the Beard Before Wicket podcast.
“Kallis is the best all-rounder or maybe the best cricketer of all time. Asif was the best seamer I ever faced. I loved playing against Warne, but I never faced difficulty. I liked his overall personality, the floppy hat, the zinc cream, the blonde hair. Again Andrew Flintoff, who was a big-match performer. That yorker to Kallis in Edgbaston is the best I have seen,” added the South African legend.
De Villiers is no less of a legend himself. He ended his 14-year-long international cricket by averaging 50.66 and 53.50 across 114 Tests and 228 ODIs for South Africa, respectively. He also stands among the most successful players for RCB, playing 156 games for the franchise in his IPL career. Along with Kohli, he was an integral part of the Bengaluru-based franchise.
He recently captained South Africa Champions, representing them in the World Championship of Legends (WCL) 2025. The batting maestro led the charge wonderfully well, emerging as the leading run-getter with 429 runs in six innings at an explosive strike rate of 220. The South African side also emerged victorious, beating a strong Pakistani outfit in the grand finale.
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