Mr 360 AB de Villiers heaped praises on his Royal Challengers Bangalore teammate Virat Kohli. De Villiers quipped that he has no doubt about the fact that Kohli is the best player in the world at the moment. Kohli and de Villiers has been playing together in the Royal Challengers Bangalore since 2011 and the two batsmen have played many superb knocks in the history of the tournament.
AB and Kohli are the only players to share two double century partnerships in the IPL. They are in fact the only pair to amassed the feat in T20 cricket. Kohli has a superb record in IPL and has scored 4619 runs while De Villiers has 3595 runs under his belt. It was in the year 2016 that Kohli smashed 973 runs which included four magnificent centuries. In that season ABD also looked in murderous mood scoring 687 runs including a century.
Kohli is a legend especially in the ODI format and has already smashed 35 centuries in that format. He is touted to break the record of Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar and with the form, he is in it is just a matter of time that he goes on to break every possible batting records in all 3 formats of the game. Besides his 35 ODI centuries, Kohli has also smashed 21 Test centuries.
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De Villiers said that he is not surprised a bit that Kohli has already accomplished so much in just a decade of international cricket. “Virat deserves everything that’s coming his way. I have seen him work very hard on his game. From the time Mark Boucher (another South African who played for RCB) told me there is a special talent coming your way, I was not surprised to be honest.”
“He has always been the guy who has grit between the heath, very passionate, very driven, have seen him do his thing for years now. There’s no doubt in my mind he is the best player in the world at the moment and will be for quite a few the years to come. Very proud of the way he goes about his business and the way he has evolved as the best player in the world,” de Villiers was quoted as saying by India Today.
Kohli says he doesn’t possess the skills of De Villiers
Kohli said that he doesn’t possess the skills which De Villiers have and that is the reason he has to stick to the basics.“I have seen this debate a lot and while I can play all formats, I don’t play these shots. But this is the way I know to play. I don’t know to play the innovative shots. My inability to play these shots is why I have to stick to my game. People like AB have tremendous ability to play all kinds of shots and I don’t so I have to mould my game according to that,” Kohli told India Today.
However, De Villiers said that Kohli doesn’t need to play the unconventional shots and he is a tremendous player while playing in the V. “Virat says he is not skilled to play some shots. But players who play 360 shots are not skilled to hit the ball in the V for six consistently.. So they have to look for other areas. So that’s what I mean,” de Villiers said.
“He can consistently hit the ball in his zone because he will get it right nine out of ten times. I have to figure out a way to get it right nine out of ten times. See players do this and that means they are not as good as him. He doesn’t have to go to those kinds of shots,” he said.
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