Former South African skipper and legendary batter AB de Villiers is one of the most loved overseas cricketers in India. Fans in India just love AB de Villiers not just for his cricketing skills but also for his personality. Though, he announced his retirement from the sport in 2021 but his fans still want to see him back on the field, smashing the balls all around the ground.
Notably, after taking retirement from his international career in 2018, AB continued to play in the IPL with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) till 2021.
AB de Villiers Revealed Why He Doesn’t Want To Return To IPL
In his latest interview, AB de Villiers revealed the reason why he doesn’t want to return to the Indian Premier League. He said that if he comes back, he will want to be the best and will like to compete with Suryakumar Yadav and Virat Kohli.
In an interview with Jio Cinema, AB de Villiers said: “Definitely. I could still play. But the drive is not there anymore. It’s always just about being the best. I want to be the best if I come back and I’ll want to compete with Surya and Kohli,”
De Villiers On Why He Gave Up Playing In The IPL
Further, De Villiers, who is fondly known as ‘Mr 360’, opened up about why he gave up playing IPL despite performing well for the franchise. He also highlighted how the recently-introduced impact player rule may help the outgoing players elongate their careers. He said:
“I definitely didn’t play enough cricket towards the back end of my career. I think that was the main thing. With this Impact Player I know a lot of people are celebrating it, it’s going to lengthen the careers of players. To me, I could never do that. I could never just play two or three months of the year because I want to be the best in the world, and you can’t do that if you play for three months of the year. Absolutely no chance,” De Villiers said.
He added:
“Yes, you can practice for nine months. But nothing, nothing compares middle practice with being out there and competing. So, the minute that fire went off being the best in the world, I felt like, what? What am I doing? So, what exactly is going on now? So was tough the last few years in that regard as well. I felt like, you know what, I can still have my super knock here and there, but I don’t want to do that. I want to be the best,”
