Whenever there will be a discussion on the topic of the best batters of the cricket world of all times, the name of former South African cricketer AB de Villiers will certainly appear in the discussion.
AB de Villiers is considered as a legend by cricket fans and what made him special was not just his cricketing talent but his ability to play innovative shots which made his earn the title of Mr. 360 degree. The former Proteas player made his debut in test cricket in 2004, in ODIs he debuted in 2005 and in T20Is he debuted in 2006. The cricketer took retirement in 2018 but in 2020, he once again expressed his desire to play in the T20 World Cup but it didn’t happen and in 2021, he took retirement from all forms of the game.
In his illustrious career of 15 years, AB de Villiers played 114 test matches, 228 ODIs and 78 T20Is for the country in which he scored 8765 runs, 9577 runs and 1672 runs, respectively. He also played a good number of cricket matches in the IPL, mainly for Royal Challengers Bangalore as he was a part of the team from 2011 and played 11 seasons for the Bangalore franchise.
The Indian cricketer Virat Kohli has been associated with RCB since the start of the IPL in 2008 and both Virat and AB de Villiers share a strong bond with each other. The presence of some giants like Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, etc. in RCB made it one of the strongest teams of the league in many seasons but unluckily RCB hasn’t been able to lift the trophy even once.
While AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle can easily be called the top players of the shortest format, the former Proteas cricketer picked a different name when he was asked to choose the greatest T20 player.
AB de Villiers neither took his name nor the names of his friends and teammates but he chose Afghanistan cricketer Rashid Khan as the greatest T20 player.
In a video posted by a sports portal, AB de Villiers can be seen calling Rashid Khan the greatest T20 player because he performs well with both bat and ball and he keeps the energy level high on the field too. ABD further says that Rashid Khan has the heart of a lion, he is very competitive and always wants to emerge as a winner.
After AB de Villiers took the name of Rashid Khan, Twitterati soon reacted, while there were some who didn’t agree with him, few had fun by taking a jibe at the friendship of ABD and Virat Kohli. Check out some selected reactions:
AB De Villiers picks Rashid Khan as the Greatest T20 player of all-time.
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) March 5, 2023
https://twitter.com/SankaranBaskar/status/1632257474555449347
Betrays VK🥲😡
— Hemang bhabhra (@BhabhraHemang) March 5, 2023
💔
Why you did this Abd? pic.twitter.com/DEpzfLRYKq— Yash Matta (@YashMatta03) March 5, 2023
Narine better
— Rudra Shashank 𝕏 (@AloneRudra2) March 5, 2023
https://twitter.com/jprasun21/status/1632209629911617536
Sunil Narine is better
— Pawan (@Pakista09367671) March 5, 2023
https://twitter.com/Jyrun45/status/1632210830313000960
Maybe for abd even facing the average leg spinner is tuff , Rashid is not the greatest.
— vijay jeeva ( ͡° ͜ʖ (@vijaykjeeva) March 5, 2023
Probably he had to find a star who could not win the WC like him. Rashid is good though.
— Bikram Pratap Singh (@bikram123) March 5, 2023
Greatest? He is improving day by day no doubt but he hasn’t played enough to be greatest so please wait.
— Sopnil Parvez (@imParvas7) March 5, 2023
— Arnav (@Arnavvvv77) March 5, 2023
Rashid Khan made his white ball format debut in 2015 and he debuted in the longest format in 2018. Since then, he has played 86 ODIs (163 wickets, 1134 runs ), 77 T20Is (126 wickets, 345 runs) and 5 test matches (34 wickets, 106 runs).
