AB de Villiers, a former South Africa and Royal Challengers Bengaluru legend recently left Virat Kohli, a close friend and a former RCB colleague, off his list of the best five cricketers. During several seasons of the RCB, there were numerous moments when the de Villiers-Kohli team shared together.
After being reminded by Adil Rashid that he had neglected to mention the Indian great’s name, the Proteas legend apologized to Virat and explained why he had selected Sachin Tendulkar over the latter. By sharing his own experiences of taking on Jacques Kallis, Mohammad Asif, Shane Warne, and Andrew Flintoff in the past, the 41-year-old further expressed why he thought each of them was special.
“[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 a legend in his own right. He averaged 50.66 and 53.50 in 114 Test matches and 228 One-Day Internationals for South Africa at the end of his 14-year international cricket career. Having played 156 IPL games for RCB, he is also one of the team’s most successful players. He was a crucial member of the Bengaluru-based team alongside Kohli.
The World Championship of Legends (WCL) 2025 was the most recent tournament in which he captained the South African champions. With 429 runs in six innings at an explosive strike rate of 220, the batting maestro led the charge brilliantly and emerged as the top run scorer. In the final, the South African team defeated a formidable Pakistani team and won as well.
