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AB de Villiers - Appreciation thread

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cars112

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Forget about his scores for a moment. We all know his Test average of 50, centuries and double centuries all over the world etc. He is a champion batsman.

But just in terms of natural gifts - have there been many if any batsmen better than him? I'm constantly dumbfounded by some of the shots he plays. When MJ was ripping through SA a few weeks ago - AB seemed like he was batting in his backyard.

Awesome cricketer. I believe that as a teenager he had the option of several sports but chose cricket - we fans are very lucky that he did!
 
He is the most gifted batsman I've seen after Tendulkar.

He couldn't do at 16 and in his teens overall what Tendulkar did.
 
cricket is too easy for this guy ..he makes batting so easy ..kholi is an amazing batsmen but boring to watch at the same time .but watching AB theres never a dull moment ..the best entertainer in cricket ever
 
Most gifted bat I've seen, some of the shots he plays are just dumbfounding as a viewer
 
What is so exhilarating (and scary for bowling attacks around the world!) that de Villiers is continually expanding his range of shots. Compare him even 2-3 years ago and there is a development in his shot play. Magnificent cricketer and sportsman - stretching the boundary of what can be achieved.
 
This guy is in the league of Travis Pastrana as far as natural overall talent is concerned. Is easily one of the best few naturally gifted batsmen today.
Most naturally gifted batsman EVER however, would be a huge over-statement.
 
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UmarAkmals-fan said:
cricket is too easy for this guy ..he makes batting so easy ..kholi is an amazing batsmen but boring to watch at the same time .but watching AB theres never a dull moment ..the best entertainer in cricket ever
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Exactly, infact to me Ab's tuk tuk is more exciting than Kohli's unstoppable free flow of runs.

Boring Boring Kohli.
 
chokes on big games.... same as amla. otherwise, a beast. today luck was on his side.
 
He is one of the most talented person across any sports

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Mamoon said:
He is the most gifted batsman I've seen after Tendulkar.

He couldn't do at 16 and in his teens overall what Tendulkar did.
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It was shocking and sad to see you label ABD as someone who "goes missing in tournaments", can't handle pressure etc.

A few bad games don't mean that, mature people with knowledge of the game shouldn't be throwing names like that specially to batsmen like ABD and Amla.

Everyone goes through bad games, and they've proved you wrong.
 
Electron said:
This guy is in the league of Travis Pastrana as far as natural overall talent is concerned. Is easily one of the best few naturally gifted batsmen today.
Most naturally gifted batsman EVER however, would be a huge over-statement.
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I'm not saying he necessarily is but I wonder who are the ones who were more naturally gifted than him? Its difficult to believe many cricketers in history were capable of playing shots that he does.
 
eradicator said:
Exactly, infact to me Ab's tuk tuk is more exciting than Kohli's unstoppable free flow of runs.

Boring Boring Kohli.
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to me the most entertaining t 20 indian batsmens r dhoni (yuvraj and dawan when they get going )...other batsmens r too one dimensional they play proper cricketing shots u see in tests and ODIs which look so boing in t20s
 
eradicator said:
Most Gifted ever would be none other than the greatest one himself : SRT
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I think tandulker was not more naturally gifted player then AB ..tandulkers passon and hard work was what made him the best in the world .....AB can play 1 ball into any corner of the ground ..wile tendu played proper shots according to where the ball lands ...
 
Hawkeye said:
It was shocking and sad to see you label ABD as someone who "goes missing in tournaments", can't handle pressure etc.

A few bad games don't mean that, mature people with knowledge of the game shouldn't be throwing names like that specially to batsmen like ABD and Amla.

Everyone goes through bad games, and they've proved you wrong.
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de Villiers has bottled it in big games before. I have always maintained his biggest test will come in the 2015 World Cup.

Today's knock doesn't prove me wrong or anything.

I never said he will never perform on the big stage; He has been found lacking in crunch matches before and same goes for Amla.
 
UmarAkmals-fan said:
I think tandulker was not more naturally gifted player then AB ..tandulkers passon and hard work was what made him the best in the world .....AB can play 1 ball into any corner of the ground ..wile tendu played proper shots according to where the ball lands ...
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Many times the exact same ball used to get dispatched in 3-4 different places with all proper shots. That's why it was very difficult to stop SRT. I haven't see too many batsmen having the capability to play same ball in 3-4 different ways with proper shots.

On other hands, AB can play 3-4 unconventional shots for the same ball. Many of us notice these shots more because conventional shots makes it look easy. I would say that it's more difficult to set field for AB because he plays so many unconventional shots but I won't call him necessarily having better natural talent than SRT.

As far as OP title is concerned, it's certainly true that AB is one of the most gifted batsmen to play cricket. Also, many greats batsmen are likely to play unconventional shots now days due to T-20 cricket. Earlier, no one would have even attempted to play some of the shots we have seen in the last 10-15 years.
 
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He's more talented than pointing, Lara and SRT for me. The most gifted batsman I've ever seen. Makes it all look like child s play.
 
Players who played other sports, like soccer or hockey seem to have better reflexes than other players. MSD played football as an youngster. I have seen reverse sweeping fast bowlers. I think Viv Richards also played soccer as a young man had amazing reflexes.
 
cars112 said:
I'm not saying he necessarily is but I wonder who are the ones who were more naturally gifted than him? Its difficult to believe many cricketers in history were capable of playing shots that he does.
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True. Kevin Pieterson for one, is one batsman from this generation, who in my opinion showed a greater or equal natural gift with his shots.
Tendulkar showcased incredible natural gift in 90s. The range of shots and the audacity was incredible for that age. Haven't seen Richards, but he should have been a naturally gifted beast too.

Each coming generation will continue to produce players who take it to the next level. This generation, AB is one of them.
 
Indiana Jones said:
Players who played other sports, like soccer or hockey seem to have better reflexes than other players. MSD played football as an youngster. I have seen reverse sweeping fast bowlers. I think Viv Richards also played soccer as a young man had amazing reflexes.
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True. Such players usually have great awareness of what's going on around them and their response to an awkward situation or position is usually breathtaking.
 
Hawkeye said:
It was shocking and sad to see you label ABD as someone who "goes missing in tournaments", can't handle pressure etc.

A few bad games don't mean that, mature people with knowledge of the game shouldn't be throwing names like that specially to batsmen like ABD and Amla.

Everyone goes through bad games, and they've proved you wrong.
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Actually they usually do bottle it in big games. Today is one of those exceptional cases.
 
AB de Villiers one of the most naturally gifted batsmen to ever play cricket?

I love watching batsmen like AB and KP


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
UmarAkmals-fan said:
I think tandulker was not more naturally gifted player then AB ..tandulkers passon and hard work was what made him the best in the world .....AB can play 1 ball into any corner of the ground ..wile tendu played proper shots according to where the ball lands ...
Click to expand...

Yes a 16 year old going against Waqar with a broken nose or a teenager taking on Donald is because he worked hard
 
I was watching Ab play MJ on backfoot, all the time i was thinking wht the heck he doing but i realized this guy has some thing special what other crickets dont have ! cook was doing similar thing in ashes but failed miserably .
 
Indiana Jones said:
Players who played other sports, like soccer or hockey seem to have better reflexes than other players. MSD played football as an youngster. I have seen reverse sweeping fast bowlers. I think Viv Richards also played soccer as a young man had amazing reflexes.
Click to expand...

Sachin too was pretty good at football, tennis, squash and TT. Sachin once defeated the best player of TT in Mumbai. He also won the intra-team tennis tournament in Australia during the 2007-08 tour
 
Certainly not as gifted as Tendulkar.

If you focus purely on the gifts in fact (and not the numbers), I would mention Yuvraj Singh.
 
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UmarAkmals-fan said:
I think tandulker was not more naturally gifted player then AB ..tandulkers passon and hard work was what made him the best in the world .....AB can play 1 ball into any corner of the ground ..wile tendu played proper shots according to where the ball lands ...
Click to expand...

The word you should using be "improviser". He is a better improviser.
 
Indiafan said:
Yes a 16 year old going against Waqar with a broken nose or a teenager taking on Donald is because he worked hard
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don't get me wrong ..I never said AB is better then tendu ..what I mean is tendu was more of a orthodox batsmen he couldn't play shots that AB plays ..wile AB can play like tendu and his natural unorthodox shots
 
Batsmen of the previous generations had no need to play some of the shots batsmen play these days. Now this can't be used as a yardstick to judge natural talent. The advent of T20s has made possible a range of strokes that were considered unnecessarily risky and even foolish in the past. Richards was an aggressive but orthodox batsman - he rarely slogged or played risky strokes.
 
James said:
Certainly not as gifted as Tendulkar.

If you focus purely on the gifts in fact (and not the numbers), I would mention Yuvraj Singh.
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Hugely underrated in that aspect. Currently people talk about Kohli, Rohit or Umar when it comes to natural gift ( in subcontinent), but Yuvraj was way ahead of these three when it came to pure talent.
 
Quality of bowling these days is way lower than what a younger Tendulkar faced.
 
Anfield said:
The word you should using be "improviser". He is a better improviser.
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IndianWillow said:
Batsmen of the previous generations had no need to play some of the shots batsmen play these days. Now this can't be used as a yardstick to judge natural talent.
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These two posts sums it up beautifully. Earlier generation didn't need to play unconventional shots and you can't use this argument against them.
 
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Just because he jumps around, plays unorthodox shots ,plays a easy short hard way doesnt make him most gifted. He is good but not great by any stretch of imagination.

Bar for greatness is too low here, greats are supposed to be couple in an entire generation.
 
"Watch how he scores his runs, not how many" - a quote by Abdul Qadir for a young Tendulkar that suits AB more, and something Kohli can learn from.
 
butthurt Sachinistas again derailing threads. They can't take someone baing labelled as "one of the most naturally gifted players" without bringing Sachin into it. Get a life.This thread is about AB. There is no reference to Sachin in the OP and no need to reference him.
 
Silly Point said:
"Watch how he scores his runs, not how many" - a quote by Abdul Qadir for a young Tendulkar that suits AB more, and something Kohli can learn from.
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If Kohli is scoring more consistently than AB, then he doesn't need to learn from AB
 
as-95 said:
butthurt Sachinistas again derailing threads. They can't take someone baing labelled as "one of the most naturally gifted players" without bringing Sachin into it. Get a life.This thread is about AB. There is no reference to Sachin in the OP and no need to reference him.
Click to expand...

My suggestion would be -
1) Read the thread.
2) Understand the thread.
3) Contribute/ cut the crap.

Or.. you can continue with the trolling part.
 
as-95 said:
butthurt Sachinistas again derailing threads. They can't take someone baing labelled as "one of the most naturally gifted players" without bringing Sachin into it. Get a life.This thread is about AB. There is no reference to Sachin in the OP and no need to reference him.
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When talk of most talented batsman comes up, Sahcin's name does come up. Why is that a surprise to you unless you have started following cricket yesterday? Sachin has called the most naturally talented batsmen by some of the best in the game and not just fans
 
I have said this time and time again.

Anyone who thinks Tendulkar wasn't outrageously gifted and was simply a product of hard work and perseverance clearly did not watch him bat before the turn of the millennium and have picked up cricket in the last 6-7 years at most.

Post 2000, Tendulkar has shown only glimpses of his flamboyance around 2003-2004. He changed his style of batting completely after injuries, especially the career threatening back injury in in late 1999 and the tennis elbow.

Tendulkar had to evolve his game to save his career and he did so, successfully that he remained one of the best batsman in the world for another decade in spite of evolving from an attacking and ambitious batsman to an accumulator.

Tendulkar at his peak was a superior version of Sehwag.
 
AB de Villiers one of the most naturally gifted batsmen to ever play cricket?

He is very confident and mentally very tough and immensely talented and has strong self belief. I wud use a naturally gifted Athlete word for him not a pure batsman word.
 
Mamoon said:
I have said this time and time again.

Anyone who thinks Tendulkar wasn't outrageously gifted and was simply a product of hard work and perseverance clearly did not watch him bat before the turn of the millennium and have picked up cricket in the last 6-7 years at most.

Post 2000, Tendulkar has shown only glimpses of his flamboyance around 2003-2004. He changed his style of batting completely after injuries, especially the career threatening back injury in in late 1999 and the tennis elbow.

Tendulkar had to evolve his game to save his career and he did so, successfully that he remained one of the best batsman in the world for another decade in spite of evolving from an attacking and ambitious batsman to an accumulator.

Tendulkar at his peak was a superior version of Sehwag.
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To everyone who thinks Tendulkar was the most talented batsmen of his generation.
I think Lara and Ponting are better than Tendulkar, but les say They were all three as good as each other.

If Tendulkar was the most talented batsmen of them all, what did Lara and Ponting had more than him to be as good as him?
 
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Mobashir said:
If Tendulkar was the most talented batsmen of them all, what did Lara and Ponting had more than him to be as good as him?
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Why do you think that they were as good as SRT?

Ponting failed 7 out of 9 tours of SC. Some tours were not big but he got enough chance. Lot more than many SC batsmen get in Aus or SA. Clearly, he had problems when playing on turners. Lara had problem against genuine quick bowlers. He has no centuries against Wasim, Waqar and Donald. No other team had genuine quick bowlers and Lara didn't have to play his own bowlers.

If we see ODI format then gap gets even bigger. Now if you are taking simple stats then yes, Ponting and Lara both have similar stats but they played far less number of tests. Hypothetically, if SRT had stopped playing cricket in 90s then his average would have been 58. But we all saw, it's not possible to sustain it for 200 tests.
 
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Indiafan said:
If Kohli is scoring more consistently than AB, then he doesn't need to learn from AB
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What part of "how and not how may runs" do you not get? AB isn't worried about how many he scores :sachin, but how he scores. He plays to win.
 
Silly Point said:
What part of "how and not how may runs" do you not get? AB isn't worried about how many he scores :sachin, but how he scores. He plays to win.
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Team wins by scoring more and not by how individual players score them.

That's the reason Kohli has won so many games while chasing. He plays chance less cricket and still scores at a high rate. That's what matters when it comes to winning games and it's irrelevant how you score those runs. I will prefer to watch AB over Kohli any day but that's a different issue.
 
Buffet said:
Why do you think that they were as good as SRT?

Ponting failed 7 out of 9 tours of SC. Some tours were not big but he got enough chance. Lot more than many SC batsmen get in Aus or SA. Clearly, he had problems when playing on turners. Lara had problem against genuine quick bowlers. He has no centuries against Wasim, Waqar and Donald. No other team had genuine quick bowlers and Lara didn't have to play his own bowlers.

If we see ODI format then gap gets even bigger. Now if you are taking simple stats then yes, Ponting and Lara both have similar stats but they played far less number of tests. Hypothetically, if SRT had stopped playing cricket in 90s then his average would have been 58. But we all saw, it's not possible to sustain it for 200 tests.
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Ok, let say Tendulkar was better than Ponting and Lara. He was the best batsman of his generation.
How much better was he than both of them?
In witch aspects were Lara and Ponting better than Tendulkar to be nearly as good as he was?
 
Buffet said:
Team wins by scoring more and not by how individual players score them.

That's the reason Kohli has won so many games while chasing. He plays chance less cricket and still scores at a high rate. That's what matters when it comes to winning games and it's irrelevant how you score those runs. I will prefer to watch AB over Kohli any day but that's a different issue.
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Completely wrong.

For example if one batsman scores in an T20 scores 60 of 60 balls, and the second one scores a 30 ball 50. I can bet you the team of the second player will win the match more often.
 
Mobashir said:
Ok, let say Tendulkar was better than Ponting and Lara. He was the best batsman of his generation.
How much better was he than both of them?
In witch aspects were Lara and Ponting better than Tendulkar to be nearly as good as he was?
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There wasn't a huge gap in test format to be honest. For some advantages of SRT, Lara and Ponting had few advantages of their own as well. I personally rate SRT only slightly ahead of Lara in the test format. Lara and SRT were surely ahead of Ponting in my opinion.

In ODIs, SRT was comfortably ahead. Lot more than the test format.

Mobashir said:
Completely wrong.

For example if one batsman scores in an T20 scores 60 of 60 balls, and the second one scores a 30 ball 50. I can bet you the team of the second player will win the match more often.
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I said team scoring more. Team scoring more is going to win games. Does it really matter if AB is playing his unconventional shots to get to 50(55) or Kohli plays his conventional shots to make 50(55)?

60(60) and 50(30) is not a valid comparison because AB and Kohli both can score at good clip and can change gears. They play different brand of cricket but SA and India benefits by both players scoring big runs. It doesn't matter if one plays unconventional shots and other plays convention ones. That was the context.
 
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AB for sure is one of the best batsmen these days.

Umar Akmal is a naturally gifted batsman as well, I wish he could be more consistent. Some of the shots he played against Australia last Sunday were simply breathtaking. Even Manjrekar and Ganguly seemed impressed with his stroke play
 
Lords said:
Just because he jumps around, plays unorthodox shots ,plays a easy short hard way doesnt make him most gifted. He is good but not great by any stretch of imagination.

Bar for greatness is too low here, greats are supposed to be couple in an entire generation.
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You missed the most important thing: He scores runs. He has been scoring since the last 3/4 years more consistently than anyone else in all formats of the game.

And his gimmicks aren't mere ostentation. He adjusts himself according to the field and finds boundaries where other batsman would fail. He is always one step ahead of the bowler.

How much more has he got to prove before you start considering him a great? I'm curious to know.

Greats are supposed to be a couple in an entire generation and ABD is one. Choose another.
 
He is awesome..Dale Steyn and Himself are the most entertaining cricketers from SA...Such joy to watch...
 
He is very gifted no doubt.But he is 30 years and perhaps at the peak of his career as he has matured over the years.Raw talent is to be assesed when a player is very young just starting out with little international experience.For me the most gifted cricketer is Someone like Tendulkar who at age 16 was scoring runs againist the best in the business and doing it consistently.Thats being really gifted,because he did it with little experience.

Or someone like Waqar who at 17 was 150k bowler and troubling the best in the business.even Wasim was 18 when he debut and WI and even the great Viv Richards had trouble facing him.
 
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Was ABD as good a cricketer as Sachin at the age of 16? I don't think so, the most naturally gifted batsman is therefore Sachin. When someone is so good at such a young age, it can only be due to being naturally gifted as he has not played enough to attribute his accomplishment to hard work, coaching and experience. There were other batsmen who were better than Sachin in some respects, but it is pretty hard to beat Sachin on natural talent.
 
Sachin was obviously extremely talented, and I had the pleasure of watching him from 96-99 which IMO was his best period ever (i don't care if he scored more later, it was more the manner in which he batted). After that he just became an accumulator and we have plenty of threads on this so...

ABD is amazing. ABD/Amla/Kohli are currently three guys in world cricket who can bat in any format. Kohli is still lacking in Tests but I'm sure he will get there with time, and Amla is lacking in T20s but his superiority in the other two formats puts him in this category as well.

Overall, if someone asked me we're going to play a "game" of cricket, and I didn't know what the format was, I would pick ABD.
 
zulfiqar said:
ABD is amazing. ABD/Amla/Kohli are currently three guys in world cricket who can bat in any format. Kohli is still lacking in Tests but I'm sure he will get there with time, and Amla is lacking in T20s but his superiority in the other two formats puts him in this category as well.
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Kohli is not even in the same galaxy as AB and Amla. Kohli is an okay accumulator on flat Indian/Asian tracks and that's it.
 
Re: AB de Villiers one of the most naturally gifted batsmen to ever play cricket?

cars112 said:
Kohli is not even in the same galaxy as AB and Amla. Kohli is an okay accumulator on flat Indian/Asian tracks and that's it.
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Kohli in ODIS is leagues ahead of Amla Amla cant chase 300 plus scores with tbe regularity and efficiency that Kohli does. AB is more talented than Kohli but Kohli is a clutch player in ODIS and has delivered much more in crunch games than De Villiers. In Tests Amla and De Villiers are ahead of Kohki but I expect him to equal and surpass them in the next year

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
 
UmarAkmals-fan said:
I think tandulker was not more naturally gifted player then AB ..tandulkers passon and hard work was what made him the best in the world .....AB can play 1 ball into any corner of the ground ..wile tendu played proper shots according to where the ball lands ...
Click to expand...

cars112 said:
Kohli is not even in the same galaxy as AB and Amla. Kohli is an okay accumulator on flat Indian/Asian tracks and that's it.
Click to expand...

Keep saying that to yourself and may be someday you will believe it.
 
Re: AB de Villiers one of the most naturally gifted batsmen to ever play cricket?

cricketjoshila said:
Keep saying that to yourself and may be someday you will believe it.
Click to expand...

Cars is the Moosa of Pakistan fans

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
 
UmarAkmals-fan said:
cricket is too easy for this guy ..he makes batting so easy ..kholi is an amazing batsmen but boring to watch at the same time .but watching AB theres never a dull moment ..the best entertainer in cricket ever
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Boring? I think not. He is clinical and when the time is right he is devastating. But I would rate AB higher at this point in time.
 
ABD is amazing. I also consider Ross Taylor and UV to be in the same breath only the latter two haven't realized their full potential as ABD .
 
For those that mentioned Yuvraj, he is as clean a striker of the ball as there is but I wouldn't say he is techincally very correct as evidenced by the trouble Murali and short pitched bowling gave him and how he never could establish himself as a test batsman. Ab's biggest strength is the time he seems to have when playing both spin and express bowling, in some ways he seems to be a combination of Rohit and Virat.
 
Pity He got Runout.


He looked absolutely threatening today.


These days I don't watch matches involving other teams but I just tuned in to see how De Velliers does today.


Fa'f there was not a single there on offer.
 
Ab de Villiers appreciation thread

What a player, playing in probably his last test series. I will make sure to watch all of these tests to see him bat. I remember feeling a similar need to see Lara's last match over a decade ago. Its nice to see AB play so well, deserved a 100.

Hoping he gets a 100 in this series.
 
Fantastic cricketer. Not sure if it is his last test series, but definitely one of the greats of the game
 
I am 99% certain based on his comments that its his last series. Even if he continues (which i hope he does), neither the Sri Lankan attack or even the Pakistani attack can seriously challenge him. This might be the last time we see him vs a great pace attack and might be the last time we see him in cricket all together.
 
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