AB de Villiers is widely regarded as one of the greatest players to represent Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), but former India cricketer and commentator Sanjay Manjrekar believes that de Villiers and RCB were an ill-fitting combination. Manjrekar criticized the IPL franchise for limiting de Villiers’s full potential, claiming that RCB’s approach stifled his brilliance.
The discussion started when Manjrekar was asked to compare de Villiers to Suryakumar Yadav, and whether Surya had surpassed Mr. 360. While Manjrekar praised both players, placing Suryakumar slightly ahead of de Villiers in T20 internationals, he acknowledged that AB was a far superior player in Tests and ODIs. However, the conversation took an unexpected turn when Manjrekar blamed RCB for restricting de Villiers’s impact in T20 cricket.
“I would say yes, because of the match-winning influence,” Manjrekar stated during the Surya vs de Villiers debate on Star Sports. “AB was phenomenal, no doubt. But what made him great was his ability to average 50 in Tests and ODIs. He’s undoubtedly an exceptional player. However, when you focus solely on T20 cricket, having watched both closely, I feel AB wasn’t utilized to his full potential in the IPL. His true capabilities were somewhat held back. He was a part of wrong franchise in IPL.”
“In the IPL, we didn’t extract as much from him as we should have. He definitely should have batted higher. And, honestly, he played for the wrong franchise. If he had been part of a different team, we could have truly witnessed the full extent of AB de Villiers‘ greatness.”
Between 2011 and 2021, de Villiers became RCB’s second-highest run-scorer in IPL history, accumulating 4522 runs. Even Chris Gayle trails him by over 1000 runs. Across 184 matches in his IPL career spanning 14 seasons, de Villiers scored 5162 runs, with only 640 runs coming while playing for the Delhi Capitals (formerly Daredevils). De Villiers produced some spectacular innings for RCB, including two centuries, with the memorable 129* against the Gujarat Lions in 2016 being a standout.