AB de Villiers, a former South African cricketer, is considered to be one of the all-time great batters across formats. He played 114 Test, 228 ODI, and 78 T20I games for South Africa from 2004 to 2018.

He scored 8765 Test runs with 22 centuries, 9577 ODI runs with 25 centuries, and 1672 runs in T20Is. He was also part of the Indian Premier League, with over 5000 runs in 184 games with three centuries.

His amazing career saw De Villiers playing together and against some of the best players to ever grace the game. On a recent podcast, he was asked to select the top five players.

The Proteas star named all-time greats Jacques Kallis of South Africa, Andrew Flintoff of England, Shane Warne of Australia, Sachin Tendulkar of India, and Mohammad Asif of Pakistan.

The South Africa star even apologized for ignoring Virat Kohli after Adil Rashid reminded him of the India star.

“Kallis, Flintoff, Mohammad Asif, Warne, and Sachin with the crowds. The way he (Tendulkar) was received when he walked out to bat—everything would come to a standstill. It's beautiful to watch him bat. Virat, sorry, Sachin. That’s why such questions are so tough to answer,” de Villiers said on the Beard Before Wicket podcast.

He hailed Kallis as the best cricketer of all time and recalled Andrew Flintoff’s famous yorker bowled to him at Edgbaston. 

He named Mohammad Asif, a bowler from Pakistan, the hardest seamer he has ever encountered. De Villiers acknowledged that he was never much bothered by the renowned bowler Shane Warne. 

"Kallis is the best all-rounder, or maybe the best cricketer of all time. Asif was the best seamer I ever faced. I loved playing against Warne, but I never faced difficulty. I liked his overall personality, the floppy hat, the zinc cream, and the blonde hair. Again, Andrew Flintoff who was a big-match performer. That yorker to Kallis in Edgbaston is the best I have seen," he added.