Published: Jan 27, 2025, 04:16 PM (IST)
Edited: Jan 27, 2025, 04:16 PM (IST)
Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar believes that legendary South Africa cricketer AB de Villiers played for the wrong IPL franchise. De Villiers played for 13 seasons in the IPL and featured for 2 franchises namely – Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).
The wicketkeeper-batter is the seventh-highest run-scorer in the league with 5162 runs under his name in 184 matches at an average of 39.70. He also scored 3 centuries and an astonishing 40 half-centuries.
Recently, Manjrekar was asked if Suryakumar Yadav has succeeded de Villiers as the new Mr 360 and the former India batter completely agreed with the statement.
“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.
Manjrekar further went on to claim that de Villiers wasn’t used properly in IPL and was always a part of the wrong franchise.
“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,” Manjrekar said.
De Villiers featured for RCB from 2021 till his retirement in 2021. Despite playing several fantastic knocks for the franchise and guiding them to victory on multiple occasions, de Villiers was never able to lift an IPL title. He appeared in 2 finals and unfortunately, ended up losing both of them.
