Sanjay Manjrekar was pretty bold in his assessment that AB de Villiers played for the wrong franchise when he represented RCB for 11 seasons.
AB de Villiers is one of the greatest players to have ever played for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru but if Sanjay Manjrekar is to be believed, then Mr. 360 and RCB were a misfit. The former India batter-turned-commentator Manjrekar took a dig at the IPL franchise, accusing it of curtailing the brilliance of de Villiers. The conversation began with Manjrekar asked to compare de Villiers with Suryakumar Yadav, and whether SKY has overtaken.
AB de Villiers blasts one through the off side(Getty)
So while Manjrekar gave both the players their flowers, even placing Surya a notch above ABD in T20Is, he agreed that de Villiers was a far better player in Tests and ODIs. However, things took an, well… interesting turn when Manjrekar dragged RCB into the discussion and held them responsible for constraining de Villiers’s effectiveness in T20 cricket.
“I’ll say yes, because of the match-winning impact,” Manjrekar said on Surya vs de Villiers during a discussion on Star Sports. “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. 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.”
Contrary to Manjrekar’s take, AB de Villiers’ legacy for RCB stands out
After Virat Kohli, de Villiers is the second-highest run-scorer for RCB in the history of IPL, amassing 4522 runs between 2011 and 2021. Even Chris Gayle is behind him – by over 1000 runs. In an IPL career spanning 184 matches and 14 seasons, de Villiers scored 5162 runs, but only 640 runs of them came while playing for the Delhi Capitals (formerly Daredevils). De Villiers has played some incredible innings for RCB, including two centuries – the unbeaten 129 against the now-defunct Gujarat Lions in 2016 standing out.
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