AB de Villiers feels fresh after 12 months of walking away from the game

Former South African skipper AB de Villiers’ decision to take a break away from the game for over the last 12 months was to feel fresh and alive again. In his absence, the South African team suffered defeats at the hands of the English side, when the two sides met this summer across formats. The right-hander has not played Test cricket since the beginning of the year in January 2016 owing to injuries as well as for personal reasons.

However, he came back from an injury and was declared fit for the Test series in England which he decided to sit out. De Villiers expressed his need to step away from the game, avoiding the intense pressure and the expectations that surrounded him. Speculations circled that the former skipper wanted to call it quits from the longest format of the game, which he eventually rubbished.

“Last 12 months have been really important for me. It was important to take a bit of a step back… I’ve become a father of two. A lot of things happened personally for me off the field. It was important for me after 12 years of international cricket just to sit back and have a look at the way I want to go in the last few years of my career. Not sure how long it is going to be, but I really enjoyed the last 12 months, just to make sure that whatever is going to happen in the future happens in the right way and hopefully there are more runs to come.” recollected the 33-year-old while talking to Harsha Bhogle for Cricbuzz.

Crowd favourite

Arguably one of the best in business, ABD has been the crowd-favourite all across the globe. The increasing expectations from the fans globally were one of the reasons for the right-hander’s extended break from the longest format.

“I think that kind of thing surely played a big role in this decision to walk away for a while. Not to put pressure on myself day in day out. Now that I’ve managed it for so long, the huge desire and hunger to be the best… and once you get close to that it does start eating you a little bit,” said the South African.

“People start expecting you to do it non-stop and don’t always remember how long it took you to get to a certain level. It did play a role in the last 12 months for me to step away. Sort of just to breathe again. And I feel I am ready to take it on again,” he concluded.