AB de Villiers, the former captain of South Africa, has talked candidly about his lengthy time with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, recalling the relationship he formed with the team and his special friendship with Virat Kohli.

Alongside players like Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, who played for RCB for 11 seasons, established himself as a key member of the team. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to win an IPL championship during his playing career.

However, he was present when RCB finally won the IPL in the 2025 season, and he celebrated with Virat Kohli and the RCB team afterwards.

However, AB de Villiers had made his IPL debut for Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) in IPL 2008 and played three seasons for them, scoring 671 runs, including 465 runs in IPL 2009, with one century.

"I don't know what it is. I think I just—I was accepted and backed. I didn't feel that way at Delhi (Daredevils) in the first three years, in and out of the side. No one's fault, I hadn't proven myself at that time yet. So it was completely normal for the coach to sort of jump and make me play around and in and out," he said on the Beard Before Wicket podcast.

However, the moment he joined the RCB franchise, he, Chris Gayle, and Virat Kohli formed a terrifying batting trio that made RCB the team to watch out for.

"But I think I arrived at RCB, and I was told, 'You're going to play. You're one of our main dudes here. We don't care what's happened in the past. You're our main guy.' And like, okay, cool. And that sort of immediately… Players are insecure, you know.

We feel insecure sometimes; we want to feel like we're backed. And I think that's the main thing—I felt backed. Beautiful city, obviously, great stadium, and nice field to play on as a batter more often than not. So I just—I mean, it just fit, just worked from the start,” he added.

AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli raised hell together in IPL, being the only two batters to put together two double-century partnerships in IPL.

"We played the game in a similar way. We are very busy at the crease, run hard, really look to get behind what the bowlers are trying to do, and find a way to attack the bowlers. There were two partnerships with him, one at the Wankhede and one at the Chinnaswamy; both were day games. Both of us were in the form of our lives.

That always helps. I just love batting with him. He is very competitive like me, and we love taking bowlers down. It was nice to have that experience with him in front of a loud crowd; it was incredible,” he signed off.

Overall, AB de Villiers made 5162 runs in 184 IPL games with three centuries and 40 fifties with an average of 39.70 and a strike rate of 151.68.