Ex-South African captain retired from all the formats of cricket in November 2021
AB de Villiers has been one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He was widely popular as Mr. 360. The former South African captain retired from all formats of cricket in November 2021.
De Villiers though isn’t sure what the future holds in store for him but former South Africa captain AB de Villiers is confident that he will have a role to play in the national team and his IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore's future set-up.
"I still believe that I have a role to play in SA cricket and also over there in the IPL with the Royal Challengers Bangalore," he was quoted as saying by Times LIVE.
"I have no idea what will come next but I will take it one day at a time and see," he said.
Villiers, 37, said he has been "looking after and mentoring some youngsters with potential and ability for the last few years."
"No one knows about it and hopefully I can look back one day in the future knowing that I have made a big difference in the lives of a few players.
"That is my focus for now and I don't know if it's going to be professional or on a casual basis, but we will see where we go with that."
AB also talked about the challenges of playing the game amidst the ongoing pandemic. He stated all these factors affected his game and he didn’t absolutely enjoy it.
"I found myself on the park where scoring runs and doing well for the team didn't match with everything that goes with it anymore and that's where the balance started leading towards hanging my gloves up.
"I have never been the guy who is going to push every single bit of energy of my ability and my cricketing skill; I have always played for the enjoyment of the game. And the minute that sort of started going down, I knew it was time for me to move on."
De Villiers has 20,014 international runs across formats under his belt; de Villiers also holds the record for the fastest fifty, century and 150 in ODIs. He also played 157 matches for Royal Challengers and scored 4522 runs.
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