I am 'scared' of Indian cricket, reveals AB de Villiers

South African batting stalwart AB de Villiers has confessed that he is “scared” of Indian cricket. The reason for that is the Indian Premier League. Although he and his team Royal Challengers Bangalore have not enjoyed a good season this year in the franchise cricket tournament, he feels IPL is making Indian cricket stronger and stronger by unearthing and producing world-class players.

This season we have seen a lot of young talent who showed great promise – Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Siddharth Kaul, Basil Thampi and the like. These players can be seen playing for India in the near future.

In an interview to Forbes India, AB de Villiers explained how India was benefitting from IPL. “I am scared of Indian cricket; it’s just getting stronger and stronger because of the IPL,” he said.

“The IPL has introduced so many Indian youngsters to this great experience of playing under pressure against the best in the world. No other country has that. They (the other countries) are slowly but surely catching up, but India is far ahead of that. I think they have got some great talent, there are some great youngsters coming through always… the future is in great hands,” he added.

Champions Trophy dreams

For de Villiers, IPL 10 has been a forgettable campaign as RCB could win only 3 games this year. They played their last game of IPL 10 on May 14 and ended the campaign with a 10-run win over Delhi Daredevils (DD). But they were without De Villiers, who had returned home last week.

His next big assignment after IPL will be the upcoming Champions Trophy which begins on June 1 in England. South Africa have not won an ICC tournament since years now and before Ab de Villiers thinks of putting down his papers, he would be desperate to break the trophy drought for the country.