Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra has said AB de Villiers has been phenomenal for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) over the years and is their runaway match-winner.
De Villiers is the second-highest run-scorer for RCB in IPL history, his 4178 runs for the franchise only bettered by the 5878 amassed by Virat Kohli. The South African genius was also one of the success stories for RCB in IPL 2020, having scored 454 runs at an average of 45.40 and a strike rate of 158.74.
During a discussion, Aakash Chopra responded in the negative when asked if AB de Villiers should be approaching the season any differently considering the pressure on the big names to help their franchise win the title.
“Why does he have to do anything different? He has been absolutely phenomenal, he is their runaway match-winner. If you were to look at all the games they have won over the last 3-5 years, you will find that AB de Villiers has walked away with the most number of Man of the Match awards as well,” said Chopra.
Chopra added that AB de Villiers has always played match-defining knocks and should continue doing so.
“He plays those kinds of innings, those impact contributions come from AB de Villiers. So more of the same, don’t change much. Everybody else is going to play a certain way, AB will definitely play a certain way,” added Chopra.
The former KKR player concluded by stating that AB de Villiers has performed to his utmost potential whenever he has played for RCB and the franchise has been found wanting in other areas.
“I don’t think AB de Villiers can do an inch more than whatever he has done so far. If that was not enough to win a trophy, I think the problem is not with AB, the problem lies elsewhere,” signed off Chopra.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore have primarily been let down by their bowlers in the IPL. Although their bowlers did a decent job in IPL 2020, the lack of support for the trio of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Devdutt Padikkal proved to be a stumbling block for the team
IPL 2021: Former Indian cricketer says “AB de Villiers is RCB’s runaway match-winner”
Birupaksh Kaundilya is a student of Journalism - Mass Media. A media enthusiast who has a strong hold on communication and content writing. He is a passionate blogger who understands the power of words. Birupaksh is currently working as an Journalist at Sports Digest and can be reached at [email protected]
