Mitchell Johnson names AB de Villiers as the best he has ever bowled to

Former Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson has singled out South African ODI skipper AB de Villiers as perhaps the best batsman he has ever bowled to. Speaking to cricket.com.au, Johnson added that current Aussie skipper Steve Smith, Englishman Joe Root, Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli were also not the easiest to bowl at.

The 34-year old, who recently announced his retirement is currently attached with the Kings XI Punjab and is with the team in the ongoing edition of the IPL. The southpaw picked up a mammoth 313 wickets in the 73 Test matches he played for Australia. He stands in fourth place in the highest wicket-takers category, behind Dennis Lillee, Shane Warne, and Glenn McGrath.

“AB de Villiers was the guy who really stood out for me,” Johnson told on Thursday (May 19). “AB was a guy that was above everyone else for a long period; just how calm he was, he had all the shots.”

Johnson has also had some memorable bowling spells against the Proteas. He bagged 64 wickets in 12 Tests at an average of 25 against them. However, AB de Villiers was perhaps the only batsman who successfully withstood the heat and was dismissed on just four occasions in 21 innings.

“Smithy (Steve Smith) was always hard work in the nets,” Johnson said. “I never really got to play against him, maybe one or two games. At the WACA bowling against him, he played really well. Root was definitely a challenge, and Williamson, I didn’t get to see enough of him, but what I did see at the end of my career, he was on his game and really hard to bowl to. He didn’t really nick the ball and if he did he had good hands and it always dropped short.

“Virat was always competitive. You always had that challenge coming up against him, that you could have a bit of a go at him and he’d lose it for a couple of balls but then he’d get back on target. He played exceptionally well against us in Australia (during the 2014-15 summer).

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Johnson added that although the foursome attacking instincts of a bowler stood out, the batsman is in much more of an advantage of late courtesy of the flatter wickets.

“They do have all the shots and they take them into Test cricket,” he said. “That’s great because it means the game flows along, there’s always something going on. Those guys are all definitely tough to bowl to. But look, I’ll say it – they’re generally playing in very good batting conditions.”