On Monday, May 12, Virat Kohli startled everyone by announcing on Instagram that he was retiring from Test cricket. The fact that one of the greatest batters in history would no longer be wearing the whites for India is still a shock to the cricket community.
Even with their tails up, Kohli refused to let the bowlers get the upper hand, and he will be remembered as a great hitter in the longest format. At an average of 46.85, the 36-year-old finished with 9230 runs from 123 Test matches. In his remarkable Test career, he also hit 30 hundreds and 31 fifties.
Alongside Kohli, AB de Villiers played for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for 11 seasons. The strong bond that developed between the two hitters has only gotten stronger over time. But before getting to know Kohli personally, the South African superstar admitted that he didn’t really like him. This sentiment resulted from their commonalities, especially their intensely competitive nature. He said that because Kohli was such a fierce competitor, he was a difficult opponent and a “pain to play against.”
As I got to know him better, I truly came to like Virat, who is like one of my cricketing brothers. In an ICC video, de Villiers stated, “He’s a real pain to play against, so before I knew him, I didn’t really like him because he was so good and so competitive, very similar to me with that competitive nature.”
“If anything threatens that, it usually brings out aggressive body language and one that will attack back, and that’s exactly what Virat was like playing against,” he continued. “We really like winning and we like to pull our weight within the team environment.”
But the former captain of South Africa claimed that after he met Virat Kohli while he was at RCB, their friendship grew into a brotherhood.
De Villiers also praised their combined batting performance. De Villiers and Kohli forged some incredible alliances while they were together. They have amassed 3123 runs from 76 games, including 10 century partnerships, making them the most prolific duo in IPL history.
At RCB, I got to know him much better after that. We became brothers and family friends, and when we played together, we were excellent partners at the wicket. We truly knew one another, and I think I loved every minute of playing with him,” de Villiers recalled.
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