Abraham Benjamin de Villiers is a right-handed Wicket Keeper Batsman known as 'Mr 360' or ABD. He is a former South African player who has been playing for Royal Challengers, Bangalore, since 2011. He is known for his extraordinary ability to hit the ball in any direction against any bowler, good personality, and fitness on the field. This right-hand wicket-keeper batsman is considered one of the most dangerous batsmen globally and capable of playing according to the team's circumstances. De Villiers is an aggressive batsman and a tremendous fielder in the world known as ‘Superman’ on the Cricket field.
The way he is batting confuses the bowlers, and he also predicts how the bowls would come and continues to transform his batting style accordingly. What sets him apart from the other players; he can simply hit the most dangerous shots in cricket, such as scoop, Sweep, Rivers sweep, Pull shot, and Uppercut. Probably, there is no other batter in the history of Cricket who has played this many shots as much as AB De Villiers since every shot he plays the way is unique from other players.
This legendary cricketer has contributed a lot of records to the South African team. The record of the fastest century (100 out of 31 Balls), Fifty (50 out of 16 Balls), and one fifty (150 out of 64 Balls) in ODI Cricket are still in his credit. On 2015 June 18, the second match against West Indies in Johannesburg will never be forgotten by the West Indies players. Windies bowlers could only stare helplessly, nothing to do with his aggressive batting. He scored in this match 149 runs out of 44 balls includes 16 sixes and 9 fours. This magnificent inning helped him reach the record of Rohith Sharma’s most sixes in an innings in ODI cricket. Also, he broke the record for the fastest fifty and fastest century in ODI cricket in this match against West Indies. He surpassed Newland cricketer Cory Anderson’s record (100 out of 36 balls) against West Indies in 2014 and Sri Lankan Cricketer Sanath Jayasurya’s record (50 out of 17 balls). Similarly, he holds the fastest 150 off 64 balls against Australia at the world cup 2015.
Former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, known as the 'God of Cricket,' once said of ABD's batting. “Kieron Pollard, Chris Gayle, David Miller, Glenn Maxwell, and AB De Villiers are all fibulas players and capable of hitting big shots, where I see De Villiers is slightly different to other guys. He can hit genuine fast bowlers or Swing bowlers, Off-spinner, Leg spinner, or whatever, and any kind of field you set; De Villiers is one guy I feel who has all the shots. He could over wicket keeper’s head, play reverse sleep too fast bowlers in the third man for six. How many people in the world can do that? For me, AB De Villiers would be the complete player here, they are all talented players, and if I had to pick one, I think AB de Villiers is the one”.
ABD has amazing fans' support from all over the world because of his outstanding batting style. Spectacles and his fans are excited when ABD comes on the stadium to bat. His performance has created vast support from Indians and many people in India who adore him. The biggest example of this, the match between India and South Africa ODI held at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, in October 2015. As he walked to the field to bat, the whole spectators were standing in the stadium cheered for him even though he was a South African. Not only that, there is a road named after him in Bangalore. In honor of him, one of his admirers in Bangalore named a place ‘AB de Villiers road.
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IINTERNATIONAL CARRIER
ABD started his International Career to play Test Cricket against England in 2004 and also made his one day international (ODI) debut against England in 2005 and made his Twenty20 international debut in 2006 against Australia.
AB de Villiers has scored 8765 runs in 114 Tests for South Africa at an average of 50.66 (including 22 Century and 46 Half-century), and 9577 runs at 53.5 in 228 ODIs (including 25 Century and 53 Half-century). He scored 22 centuries in Tests and 25 in ODIs. He played 78 matches in T20I and scored 1672 runs at an average of 26.12. His individual score is 278*(The second-highest individual score by South African after Hashim Amla’s 311) against West Indies in Test cricket and 176 in ODI cricket against West Indies.
In December 2013, he became the ninth cricket player to top the batting ranking in Tests and ODIs. This destructive batsman, who hit 100 off 31 balls, has again done wonders in Test Cricket by scoring 25 runs off 244 balls at the strike rate of 10.24 against India in 2015. Likewise, in 2012, he scored 33 off 220 balls in the second Test in Adelaide, Australia, and played a key role in the match tie. These innings considered as one of the slowest innings in Test cricket.
He completed his first Test century in international cricket against England in 2014 and scored 109 runs, and he hit his first double century in 2008 against India. In 2007 he completed his first ODI hundred against West Indies, hitting 146 runs off 130 balls. He was not a regular wicket-keeper until 2012; after the retirement of Mark Boucher, he took over the Wicket keeping position in all formats.
As the Caption of South Africa
ABD took over the captaincy (from 2012 to 2017) of the South African team from Graeme Smith, and he laid the South African team in all three formats of International Cricket. He laid South Africa in 103 one-day international matches as a captain with 59 won and 39 lost and also captained for 18 T20 International matches with 8 won. He laid South Africa only three test matches, including 3 won and 1 lost. In 2016, following the resignation of Hashim, Amla De Villiers was taking over the Test captaincy. He earlier resigned the Test Captaincy due to a serious injury, and also he resigned the captaincy from ODI cricket in 2017.
He has the caption who laid South Africa to most matches in ODI Cricket after Graeme Smith and Hansie Cronje. Under his captaincy, South Africa reached the semi-finals in the 2015 World Cup. Unfortunately, South Africa was knocked out by New Zealand as per the Duckworth – Lewis rule. However, he did a terrific performance in the tournament, scored 482 runs at an average of 96 and a strike rate of 144. The photos and videos of him weeping and wiping away tears after losing to New Zealand in the semi-final went viral.
Retirement from the entire format of International Cricket
On 23 May 2018, AB De Villiers announced his retirement from the entire format of International Cricket at 34. In a video posted on his Twitter account, he thanked the Coaches and staff in South Africa who supported him and the teammates who were with him throughout his career. However, there was rumoured that he would return to the South African T20 team. He expressed interest in playing in the world cup ODI 2019 but has not received a proper response from the Team Management.
But Cricket South African management was setting up to bring ABD back to T20 world Cup 2021 in India. Because of he was an outstanding performance in IPL 2021, which was held in India. As part of this, South African Team Coach Mark Boucher and Director Graeme Smith discussed this with ABD. But then Cricket South Africa (CSA) confirmed that he would not return to international cricket from retirement.
INDIA PREMIER LEAGUE (IPL) CARRIER
ABD started his IPL career was on May 2nd, 2008, playing against Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. He played for Delhi Daredevils (Delhi Capitals) in the first three sessions from 2008 to 2010. Later in 2011, he came to Royal Challengers, Bangalore, and he has been playing for Bangalore ever since. He has scored 5053 runs from 175 matches with an average of 41.08 and a strike rate of 152.70, including 3 centuries and 40 fifties. His highest individual score was 133* against Mumbai Indians in 2015.
ABD is the only batsman in IPL history to complete 5000 runs with 150 or strike rate and 40 or above batting average. He was a terrific fielder in IPL with a lot of outstanding catches. He took 19 catches as a fielder in IPL 2016 and held the record for most catches by a fielder in a season.
The combination between AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli will be the more exciting matches for the spectators and fans. The ABD- Virat duo gained 229 runs partnership against Gujarat Lions in 2016 is the biggest partnership in the IPL history, and also the duo’s 215* runs partnership against Mumbai Indians in 2016 is the second-highest partnership in IPL (His highest individual score 133* was also scored in the same match). In the match against Kolkata knight Riders in 2020, the Virat-ABD duo completed 100 runs partnership 10 times. England wicketkeeper-batsman Jose Butler described their batting combination as" watching Virat-ABD playing together is like Ronaldo and Messi on the same team.
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PERSONAL LIFE
AB De Villiers was born (born 17 February 1984) in Bela-Bela, South African, as a Son of Abraham B De Villiers and Millie De Villiers; Jan de Villiers and Wessels De Villiers are his elder brothers. As a kid, he used to play Badminton, Tennis, Swimming, Golf, and football. South African Cricket player FAF Du Plessis was his childhood friend.
In April 2013, ABD got married to Social worker Danielle swart and had three children, two sons and one daughter, Abraham de Villiers (born in 2015), John Richard de Villiers (born in 2017), and Yente Dew Villiers (Born in 2020). He was in UAE in connection with the IPL when his third child was born. ABD had released his Autobiography “AB: The Autobiography” in English and Africans; this book is available in the market and can also be online at Amazon and Flip cart.
AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS
ICC ODI Player of the Year in 2010
ICC ODI Player of the Year in 2014&2015
Sources: Youtube, Wikipedia Cricbuzz
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