When AB de Villiers announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket easier this week, it came as a shock to many. Fans of the game and the players across the world, including various celebrities and cricketers, were taken aback by the news.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli has been a close friend to de Villiers. Having played together for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League for many seasons, the two batsmen have at several occasions shared their mutual admiration for each other.
So, after de Viliers announced his retirement on Wednesday it was expected that his friend Virat Kohli would surely come up with a farewell message.
Kohli, finally on Saturday, took to Instagram to wish AB luck in his future endeavours . Virat refereed to de Villiers as his “brother” in the his message and expressed how he felt that the South African batting legend had changed the way in which batting was perceived by the world.
On Wednesday, 24 May, the cricketing world were in for a shock when South African batsman AB de Villiers announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket. While the news of the cricketer retiring from test cricket was making the rounds, a total retirement from all forms came as a shocker.
de Villiers shared a minute and a half long video on his social media accounts announcing his retirement. The cricketer said that he wanted to “give others a chance” and was “honestly tired and out of gas”, while making the big announcement.
AB decided to bring curtains to his career after a staggering 420 matches across three formats with over 20,000 runs and 47 hundreds. He averaged over 50 in both the Tests and ODIs.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)