Published: Jan 28, 2025, 09:02 AM (IST)
Edited: Jan 28, 2025, 09:02 AM (IST)
Former India cricketing legend Sanjay Manjrekar has stated that the Indian Premier League (IPL) did not bring out the ‘juice’ out of AB de Villiers, and claimed that he played for the wrong franchise. Even after his retirement from international cricket, former South African cricketer had given some brilliant performance for the franchise/
However, Manjrekar had other opinions. Sanjay, who is known to be usually bold with his opinions, said that Suryakumar Yadav has already covered de Villiers when it comes to comparing their match-winning T20Is.
“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 while speaking 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,” Manjrekar added.
In his IPL career, the former South African captain played 184 matches, and scored 5162 runs at an average of 39.71. De Villiers holds the fifth position in batters with the most sixes in the tournament, as he has 251 maximums.
