New Delhi [India] : South African batsmen Abraham Benjamin de Villiers took retirement from the sport in 2021 but said in a recent interview that if he comes back, he will want to be the best and will like to compete with Suryakumar Yadav and Virat Kohli.
AB de Villiers was named the ICC ODI Player of the Year three times during his 15-year international career and was one of the five Wisden cricketers of the decade at the end of 2019. De Villiers is a right-handed batter who accumulated over 8,000 runs in Tests including 22 centuries and 46 fifties.
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 batsman, and also holds the fastest hundred by a South African in Tests and the fastest 50 by South African in T20Is.
In a recent interview with Jio Cinema, AB de Villiers said, “Definitely. I could still play. But the drive is not there anymore. It’s always just about being the best. I want to be the best if I come back and I’ll want to compete with Surya and Kohli…
“I definitely didn’t play enough cricket towards the back end of my career. I think that was the main thing. With this Impact Player, I know a lot of people are celebrating, it’s going to lengthen the careers of players. To me, I could never do that. I could never just play for two or three months of the year because I want to be the best in the world, and you can’t do that if you play for three months of the year. Absolutely no chance. Yes. You can practice for nine months. But nothing, nothing compares middle practice with being out there and competition.
“So, the minute that fire went off being the best in the world, I felt like, what? What am I doing? So, what exactly is going on now? So was tough the last few years in that regard as well. I felt like, you know what, I can still have my super knock here and there, but I don’t want to do that. I want to be the best,” he added.
