Ab de Villiers is a South African Cricketer with a right-handed batter who accumulated over 8,000 runs in Tests including 22 centuries and 46 fifties. He holds the record for most Test innings without registering a duck (78), before being dismissed for naught against Bangladesh in November 2008. He
Profile Summary
| Full Name/Stage Name | Abraham Benjamin de Villiers/Ab de Villiers |
| Date of Birth | 17 February 1984 |
| Nationality | South African |
| Spouse | Danielle Swart |
| Occupation | South African International Cricketer. |
| Net Worth | $27.97 million |
Who is Ab?
Abraham Benjamin de Villiers is a former South African International Cricketer. AB de Villiers was named the ICC ODI Player of the Year three times during his 15-year international career and was one of the five Wisden cricketers of the decade at the end of 2019. He is regarded as one of the greatest cricketers in the history of the sport.
De Villiers captained South Africa in all three formats, although after a series of injuries, he stepped down from the Test captaincy. In 2017, he stepped down from captaining the national limited-overs games and in May 2018, he announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket. In January 2020, however, de Villiers expressed an interest in making an international comeback and playing in the 2020 T20 World Cup, although later in the year it was confirmed that he would not do so. On 19 November 2021, De Villiers announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.
Early Life of Ab de Villiers
Abraham Benjamin de Villiers was born on 17 February 1984 in Warmbad, which is modern-day Bela-Bela, South Africa to Abraham B de Villiers and Millie de Villiers. He has two elder brothers Jan de Villiers and Wessels de Villiers. He described his childhood days as a “really relaxed lifestyle up there, where everyone knows everyone”. He was educated at Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool in Pretoria along with teammate Faf du Plessis, who was and remains his good friend. He is a high school graduate. His father was a doctor who had played rugby union in his youth, and he encouraged his son to play sports as a child.
Career Path of Ab de Villiers
Ab de Villiers holds the second-highest individual score by a South African batsman, with 278*. Until 2012 he was an occasional wicketkeeper for South Africa, although after the retirement of regular Test keeper Mark Boucher and under his captaincy he has started to regularly keep wicket for the national side in Tests, ODIs, and T20Is. He gave up wicket-keeping in 2015 and handed the gloves to debutant Quinton de Kock.
He holds the records for the fastest 50 (16 balls), 100 (31 balls), and 150 (64 balls) of all time in One Day Internationals by any batsman, and also holds the fastest hundred by a South African in Tests and the fastest 50 by South African in T20Is. He is a three-time ICC ODI player of the year, winning the award in 2010, 2014, and 2015.
After the 2011 Cricket World Cup, he succeeded Graeme Smith as captain of the national ODI side and became Test captain after the second Test of the home series against England in 2015/16. He stepped down from Test captaincy in December 2016 due to an elbow injury that kept him out of the team for a long period.
International career
After a spell in the South Africa U19 team, he made his debut for the Titans in 2003/4.
He made his Test debut as a 20-year-old on 16 December 2004 against England at Port Elizabeth. He made a strong impression opening the batting but was dropped down the order for the second Test and also handed the wicket-keeping gloves. In this match, he made a match-saving half-century from number seven. However, he found himself at the top of the order again for the final Test of the series.
Despite a good tour of the Caribbean where he scored 178 to help South Africa seal a Test series win, his rapid progress was slowed on the tour of Australia in 2005. Despite playing Shane Warne well and becoming the second youngest and second-fastest South African to reach 1,000 Test runs after Graeme Pollock, he struggled and made just 152 runs in 6 innings.
He has been used similarly to Jonty Rhodes in ODIs, opening the innings, although he currently bats in the middle order. De Villiers gave the selectors a sign by producing his then-highest one-day score of 92 not out, which included 12 fours and one six, from 98 balls against India in the 2006 winter series.
De Villiers had a reputation as an outstanding fielder, typified by a diving run-out of Simon Katich of Australia in 2006 when he dived to stop the ball, and while still lying on his stomach facing away from the stumps, he tossed the ball backward over his shoulder and effected a direct hit. This has also led people to make further comparisons of him to Jonty Rhodes, who was also one of the finest fielders of his generation. His fielding positions other than wicketkeeper are 1st and 2nd slip and cover.
Record Breaking Year
On 18 January 2015, De Villiers scored both the fastest fifty and the fastest century by a batsman in One Day International cricket, off 16 balls and 31 balls respectively, and eventually scoring 149 runs off 44 balls in 59.5 minutes against West Indies.
World Cup
De Villiers was one of the top performers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup scoring 482 runs at an average of 96.0 and a strike rate of 144.0 during the tournament.
On 27 February 2015, De Villiers scored 162 runs off 66 balls in a match against the West Indies in Pool B, leading South Africa to their second-highest total in World Cup history (408), at Sydney Cricket Ground. With this feat, he became the record holder for the fastest 50, 100, and 150 in One-Day International history.
Under the captaincy of De Villiers, South Africa qualified for the semi-finals of the World Cup but lost to New Zealand in the match. De Villiers finished the tournament as the third-highest run-scorer with 482 runs, behind Martin Guptill and Kumar Sangakkara.
At the end of the tournament, he was ranked number 1 in the ICC batsmen rating in day international cricket and number 3 in the ICC batsmen rating in Test cricket. He was named in the ‘Team of the Tournament’ for the 2015 World Cup by the ICC.
Retirement
On 23 May 2018, De Villiers announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket through a video uploaded to Twitter, in which he explained his decision. One of the statements in his monologue was “I have had my turn, and to be honest, I am tired.”A few weeks after his announcement about retiring from international cricket, he clarified and said that he will continue playing in T20 leagues for a few more years. During the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup and following South Africa losing their first three matches in the tournament, details emerged of De Villiers making himself available for selection for the national team squad on the day the squad was to be announced. He was not selected as he had not played any international cricket for his country leading up to the tournament, despite having been prompted to do so by South Africa’s coach Ottis Gibson earlier in the year.
In January 2020, it was rumored that de Villiers was in talks to make a comeback to the South African T20I side for the 2020 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. De Villiers, as well as South African director of cricket Graeme Smith and head coach Mark Boucher, confirmed these rumors.
In November 2020, de Villiers was nominated for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, and the award for ODI cricketer of the decade.
Love Life of Ab de Villiers
De Villiers proposed to his girlfriend, Danielle Swart, at the Taj Mahal in 2012, after five years of dating. The couple got married on 30 March 2013, in Bela-Bela, South Africa. They have two sons and one daughter.
He is a devout Christian and has stated that his faith is crucial to his approach to life. He is also an accomplished guitar player and a singer. In 2010, he released a bilingual pop album entitled Maak Jou Drome Waar with his friend and South African singer Ampie du Preez. His autobiography, AB de Villiers – the Autobiography, was released in September 2016. He is the most-followed South African on Instagram
Ab de Villiers Net Worth
Ab’s earnings are beyond just cricketing and Instagram, he is worth as high as $27.97 million
Conclusion
AB de Villiers was said to have begun his international career as a wicket-keeper-batsman, but he has played most often solely as a batsman. He batted at various positions in the batting order, but predominantly in the middle order. Regarded as one of the most innovative and destructive batsmen in the modern era, as well as one of the greatest of all time, de Villiers is known for a range of unorthodox shots, particularly behind the wicketkeeper. He made his international debut in a Test match against England in 2004 and first played a One Day International (ODI) in early 2005. His debut in Twenty20 International cricket came in 2006. He scored over 8,000 runs in both Test and ODI cricket and is one of the very few batsmen to have a batting average of over fifty in both forms of the game. In limited-overs cricket, he is an attacking player.[5] He holds the record for the fastest ODI century in just 31 balls.
He is sometimes referred to as “Mr. 360” due to his ability to play shots all around the wicket, and as “Superman” due to his acrobatic fielding. In T20 cricket he is seen as an attacking batsman who plays a range of unconventional shots.
