Cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra recalled his most distinctive memory of AB de Villiers saying that he got the same standing ovation from Indian crowds as the ones got by the most cherished Team India players.
Cricket South Africa recently confirmed that AB de Villiers is not coming back to international cricket. The swashbuckling reasoned that he did not want to take the spot of another deserving player.
Talking about AB de Villiers' international career in a video shared on his YouTube channel, former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra said that the standing ovation the Indian crowd gives to MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli gave the same to AB de Villiers as if he was Indian.
"If we see Indian cricket's immediate span, Dhoni, Kohli, and Rohit are the three players who cause a roar when they enter the ground. I saw a similar standing ovation given to AB de Villiers before the match. It was as if he was an Indian" Aakash Chopra said in a video posted on his YouTube channel.
Chopra said that his experience during an India-South Africa match in Dharamsala will forever be etched in his mind.
"The kind of love and affection, and the admiration he has generated in Indian hearts. There are a few moments that get etched in your mind, which remain with you forever.
"This was such a moment which happened to me with regards to AB de Villiers during an India-South Africa match in Dharamsala," he said.
Chopra highlighted that South African great has extraordinary numbers both in Tests and ODI cricket.
"His Test and ODI career numbers are wonderful. He scored 8765 runs in Tests at an average of 50.66. He reached close to ten thousand runs in ODIs, 9577 runs at an even better average of 53.50, and a strike rate above 100. That's phenomenal" said Aakash Chopra
Chopra pointed out that AB de Villiers T20I numbers are not as great as achievements in other T20 encounters.
"But his T20I numbers, he has played 75 matches which are quite a few, but only 1672 runs in that at an average of 26 and a strike rate of 135. He did not hit a century and ten half-centuries. But if you see T20s, there is a difference in chalk and cheese between his T20I and T20 numbers.
“He is a runaway match-winner in T20s, he was the same player in Tests and ODIs but for whatever reason, his performances for South Africa in T20Is were not that good," he said.
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Aakash Chopra further remarked that AB de Villiers might not have lived up to expectations in T20I cricket because of the colossal tension on him and the jobs he was allocated to play.
"It could be because the team was not winning and there was a lot of pressure on him but that happens with RCB also where the team does not win but he still does well.
"A little bit of paralysis by analysis. I remember a World Cup where his team decided that he does well when he comes after 10 overs" he concluded.
In 420 internal matches, AB de Villiers has amassed 20,014 runs to go with 47 centuries.
