Abraham Benjamin de Villiers (born 17 February 1984), commonly known as AB de Villiers, is a former South African cricketerwho played for the South African national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketer to have played the game, he holds many batting records, including the world’s fastest One-Day International (ODI) 50, 100 and 150, the fastest Test century by a South African and the fastest Twenty20 International (T20 International) 50 by a South African batsman. He also plays for Titans in South African domestic cricket and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.
He began his international career as a wicket-keeper/batsman (returning to the role for a few years in mid-career), but he has played most often solely as a batsman. He could bat at various positions in the batting order but predominantly in the middle-order. Noted as one of the most innovative batsmen in the modern game, de Villiers is noted for many unorthodox shots behind the wicket-keeper and slips.
[1] He made his international debut in a Test match against England from 2004 and first played an ODI in early 2005. His debut in Twenty20 International cricket came in 2006. As of 2016, he has passed 8,000 runsin both Test and ODI cricket and has a batting average of over fifty in both forms of the game. He is also the only batsman in ODI cricket to have completed a trio of 5000+ runs, 50+ average and 100+ strike rate in his career.[2] As of May 2018, from the date of his international debut onwards, he has scored 20,014 runs in international cricket. Within the same period he lies just second behind Kumar Sangakkara.[3]
AB De Villiers captained South Africa in all formats, but since his injuries, he stepped down from Test captaincy and continued in ODI and T20 . However, with defeats in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy and England series, he stepped down from ODI and T20 captaincy as well.[4] On 23 May 2018, he announced that he was retiring from all forms of international cricket.
Abraham Benjamin de Villiers was born in Warmbad, South Africa,[8] and enjoyed what he later described as the “really relaxed lifestyle up there, where everyone knows everyone”.[9] He went to high school in Pretoria along with teammate Faf du Plessis. They attended the prestigious Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool. AB returned home for weekends. His father was a doctor who had played rugby union in his youth, and he encouraged his son to play sports; as a child, De Villiers played cricket at his home. His autobiography was published in September 2016.[9] He has been involved in charity works.[10]
De Villiers is a right-handed batsman who has accumulated over 8,000 runs in Testsincluding 22 centuries and 46 fifties. He holds the record for most Test innings without registering a duck (78),[11] before being dismissed for nought against Bangladesh in November 2008. He also holds the second-highest individual score by a South African batsman, with 278 (not out). Until 2012 he was an occasional wicket-keeper for South Africa, although after the retirement of regular Test keeper Mark Boucher and under his own captaincy he has started to regularly keep wicket for the national side in Tests, ODIs and T20Is. He gave up wicket-keeping in 2015 and handed the gloves to debutant Quinton de Kock.
He holds the records for the fastest 50 (16 balls), 100 (31 balls) and 150 (64 balls) of all time in One Day Internationals by any batsmen, and also holds the fastest hundred by a South African in Tests and the fastest 50 by South African in T20Is. He is a three-time ICC ODI player of the year, winning the award in 2010, 2014 and 2015.
He succeeded Graeme Smith after the 2011 Cricket World Cup for the ODI captaincy and Hashim Amla after the Second Test of the England in South Africa series for the Test captaincy. He stepped down from Test captaincy in December 2016 due to an elbow injury which kept him out of the team for a long period…
De Villiers proposed to his girlfriend, Danielle Swart, at the Taj Mahal in 2012, after five years of dating. The couple got married in March 2013, in Bela-Bela, South Africa. They have two sons.[50][51]
He is a devout Christian and has stated that his faith is crucial to his approach to life.[52]He is also an accomplished guitar player and a singer. In 2010, he released a bilingual pop album entitled Maak Jou Drome Waar with his friend and South African singer Ampie du Preez.[53]
He is also a Manchester United fan, having followed the club since Ryan Giggs’s debut.[54]De Villiers said that his favourite footballer is Lionel Messi as he was asked by a fan to choose between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi on Twitter…
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