Abraham Benjamin de Villiers (born 17 February 1984), commonly known as AB de Villiers, is a South African international cricketer who plays for the South African national team and Titans in domestic cricket. He is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. De Villiers holds many batting records, including the world's fastest ODI 50, 100 and 150, the fastest Test century by a South African and the fastest T20I 50 by a South African. He also plays for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.
He began his international career as a wicket-keeper/batsman (returning to the role for a few years in mid-career), but has played most often solely as a batsman. He has batted at various positions in the batting order but predominantly in the middle-order. Noted as one of the most innovative batsmen in the modern game, De Villiers is noted for many unorthodox shots behind the wicket-keeper and slips, which earned him the nickname Mr. 360. 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.
De Villiers captained South Africa in all formats, but since his injuries, he stepped down from Test captaincy and continued in limited over formats. However, with defeats in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy and England series, he stepped down from limited over captaincy as well.
He began his international career as a wicket-keeper/batsman (returning to the role for a few years in mid-career), but has played most often solely as a batsman. He has batted at various positions in the batting order but predominantly in the middle-order. Noted as one of the most innovative batsmen in the modern game, De Villiers is noted for many unorthodox shots behind the wicket-keeper and slips, which earned him the nickname Mr. 360. 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.
De Villiers captained South Africa in all formats, but since his injuries, he stepped down from Test captaincy and continued in limited over formats. However, with defeats in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy and England series, he stepped down from limited over captaincy as well.
