AB De Villiers training with South Africa in 2009.
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Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Abraham Benjamin de Villiers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
Pretoria, Transvaal Province, South Africa |
17 February 1984 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nickname | Mr. 360°, Superman of cricket | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batting style | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowling style | Right-arm medium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Role |
Batsman / Wicket-keeper South Africa ODI Captain |
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International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National side |
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Test debut (cap 298) | 17 December 2004 v England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last Test | 22 January 2016 v England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ODI debut (cap 78) | 2 February 2005 v England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last ODI | 4 February 2017 v Sri Lanka | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ODI shirt no. | 17 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2003–present | Northerns | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2004–present | Titans (squad no. 17) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2008–2010 | Delhi Daredevils | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2011–present | Royal Challengers Bangalore | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2016 | Barbados Tridents | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: CricketArchive, 2 February 2017 |
Abraham Benjamin de Villiers (born 17 February 1984) is a South African cricketer who currently captains the South African One Day International (ODI) team. He is also a former captain in T20I and Test cricket for South Africa. De Villiers is regarded as one of the greatest cricketers of all time and best batsman in One Day International at present and a legend in the modern cricket world.
De Villiers holds many batting records, including world's fastest 50, 100 and 150 in ODI cricket, the fastest Test century by a South African and the fastest T20I 50 by a South African. His match winning ability and lethal innings across all formats rated him as number one batsman in several occasions.
He made his international debut in a Test match against England in 2004 and first played an ODI in early 2005. His debut in Twenty20 International cricket came in 2006. As of 2016, he has passed 8,000 runs in both Test and ODI cricket and has a batting average of over fifty in both forms of the game.
Though he began his career as a wicketkeeper-batsman, but later played most often purely as a batsman. He has batted at various positions up and down the order. Noted as an innovative batsman in modern game, AB De Villiers is noted for many unorthodox strokeplays behind the wicketkeeper and slips. He is considered to be the most explosive batsman of all time. He has the record of the fastest ODI score of 100 and 150.
De Villiers was born in Warmbad, and enjoyed what he later described as the "really relaxed lifestyle up there, where everyone knows everyone". He went to high school in Pretoria but returned home for weekends. His father was a doctor who had played rugby union in his youth, and he encouraged his son to play sport; as a child, De Villiers played cricket at his home. His autobiography was published in September 2016. Beside cricket, De villiers was brilliant in golf, rugby, tennis and some other sports. That is why some say that he was born to play sports and luckily for the cricket fans, he chose cricket as a profession. He did so at the age of 18
De Villiers is a right-handed batsman, who has accumulated many runs in Tests including 21 centuries and 39 fifties. He holds the record for most Test innings without registering a duck (78), before being dismissed for nought against Bangladesh in November 2008. He also holds the second-highest individual score by a South African batsman in an innings, with 278*. Until 2012, he was an occasional wicket-keeper for South Africa, although since the retirement of regular Test keeper Mark Boucher and under his own ODI captaincy he has started to regularly keep wicket for the national side in Tests, ODIs and T20Is, but then decided to give up wicketkeeping after the debut of Quinton de Kock, and started becoming a part-time bowler.