Former South African cricketer AB de Villiers had established himself as one of the most destructive batters during his playing days. There was a palpable sense of fear among bowlers whenever he came out to bat due to his power-hitting abilities. India’s current T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav is often compared to AB de Villiers for his match-winning abilities in T20Is.
But, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar feels that Suryakumar Yadav has already surpassed AB de Villiers in terms of match-winning abilities. After his retirement, de Villiers played in the IPL for Royal Challengers Bangalore but didn’t win any title with the franchise. Manjrekar stated that de Villiers played for the wrong franchise.
"I'll say yes, because of the match-winning impact. AB was incredible. But AB's greatness was that he averaged 50 in Tests. Even in one day (ODIs). So, he's an amazing player. But only if you look at T20 cricket; I've seen both of them a lot,” Manjrekar said on Star Sports.
“AB, in IPL, he was not used properly. His real ability. So, in IPL we didn't get that much juice out of him. Definitely (batted higher). And, sorry to say, but played for the wrong franchise. If he had played elsewhere, we could have seen the greatness of AB de Villiers," he said.
During his IPL career, the cricketing legend played 184 games, blazing 5162 runs at an average of 39.71. He smacked three hundreds and forty half-centuries.