AB de Villiers - The Modern Day Renaissance Man

Deon Maritz from Cape Town, South Africa / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

AB de Villiers can do it all. One of the greatest cricketers in the game’s history, the former South African captain's talents are far from limited to cricket. He was captain of the South African junior national rugby team as a youngster while also representing his country in both hockey and football, swimming, and playing golf off scratch. He’s also a gifted guitarist and singer and has released a bilingual album of his own.

Clearly, the guy is pretty capable at many things, but on the cricket field, he has shown himself to be as talented as anyone, past or present.

Boasting a technique which combines the perfect execution of the fundamentals with an unparalleled ability to innovate, de Villiers enjoyed over 13 years of dominance at the international level before his abrupt retirement in 2018 brought his career with South Africa to a close.

But he’s not finished yet. Now 36 years of age, de Villiers is enjoying the riches that come with the burgeoning domestic T20 industry worldwide.

This month he will line up in the IPL for the 13th time. If the last couple of years are anything to go by, he’ll again prove that his international retirement certainly wasn’t a result of an inability to continue to produce at a high level. 2020 will be the 10th consecutive season in which he will line up for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

By paddynapper - [1], CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26300570

In each of those ten seasons in Bangalore, he has shared a place in the batting order with Virat Kohli, forming the most potent duo in the competition. As arguably the two greatest short-form batsmen the game has ever seen, their capacity to bring an inaugural title to the city of Bangalore has never been disputed, but despite that, they’ve never managed to climb the mountain.

That’s hardly the fault of AB – in five of the past six IPL seasons he has averaged over 44 at a strike rate of over 150 – but the side has consistently failed to fire when it’s needed to most.

This year, de Villiers and Kohli will share the field with the likes of Aaron Finch, Chris Morris, and Dale Steyn, and if they can fire, perhaps this can finally be their year.

Of course, we’ve heard that plenty of times before, but if anyone can help to turn around their fortunes, AB can.