Proteas SuperMan turns 33

The Protea superman, Abraham Benjamin de Villiers, who chose to grace cricket fields turns 33 today. This man could have played any sport from tennis, rugby, soccer or swimming, having represented South Africa at various junior levels, but chose to set cricketing fields on fire with his genius.

After playing just 16 first-class matches, AB de Villiers made his debut versus England in 2004, at the age of 20, along with Dale Steyn. He opened the batting in the game and ever since has batted at all numbers from No.1 to No.8 in the last 13 years. The man has essentially become a 360-degree player over the years, who can play any shot in the book or write new shots in the book against any bowler.

De Villiers was never intimidated by any attack in any condition and has been consistently prolific for the Proteas over the last decade. His best year statistically was 2008, where he managed to score 1061 runs in the calendar year. He scored heavily in foreign conditions during that year with hundred in Leeds and Perth and a double hundred in Ahmedabad.

ABD briefly held the highest score by a South African in Tests by scoring 278* versus Pakistan in Abu Dhabi in 2010. This was later claimed by Hashim Amla, who scored a triple hundred. He was also an integral part of the South African team which won the Test mace in 2012.

Apart from his blazing fielding on the cricket field, a true successor to the legendary Jonty Rhodes, de Villiers took up full-time wicket-keeping duties after Mark Boucher hung his boots after a freak injury. With Graeme Smith calling it a day, it was widely expected that ABD will be given the reins, but CSA thrust the responsibility on Amla. However, Amla gave up captaincy soon and AB is rightfully appointed the captain in all formats. He called the team the strongest side in 2015 World Cup Down Under but crashed out in the semi-final.

De Villiers revelled in the white ball game and played many memorable knocks. He broke the record for fastest ODI hundred against West Indies at the Wanderers in 2015. The IPL has been a happy hunting scene for ABD and has been instrumental in the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s dynamic batting line-up constituted with the likes of Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli. His exploits in the IPL, including a thrashing of a certain South African Dale Steyn for 23 runs in an over, attracted many a T20 deals for the legend across the globe.

However, a constant back injury has lead speculations that ABD may be forced into early retirement with him missing the New Zealand series and opting to skip the English summer, citing concerns over workload. This has led him to hand over the captaincy to Faf du Plessis and give wicket keeping in Tests. He has stated that he would play lesser number of Tests to prolong his career, which legends like Steve Waugh stated would “damage Test cricket in the long run”. The 2019 World Cup is very much in de Villiers’ plans.

CricTracker wishes the legend a very happy birthday. May he set ablaze cricketing fields for years to come.

Written by Rameez Mannil