Sanjay Manjrekar says AB de Villiers played for wrong IPL team, says his greatness could have been more if he had played elsewhere

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar believes AB de Villiers played for the wrong IPL team, taking a dig at Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Manjrekar highlighted that the South African’s greatness could have been more if had played for a different franchise in the lucrative tournament.

De Villiers scored 5162 runs in 184 IPL matches at an impressive average of 39.71 and a blistering strike rate of 151.69. RCB qualified for the IPL final in 2011 and 2016 when AB was part of the team but they could not go all the way in the tournament. The talisman joined RCB in 2011 and played his last season for them in 2021.

Meanwhile, RCB has qualified for three IPL finals but they are yet to win a single title. AB also played three seasons for Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) in the early stages of the IPL.

During the Star Sports show, when asked if Suryakumar Yadav has eclipsed AB de Villiers as Mr. 360? Manjrekar said, “I’ll say yes, because of the match-winning impact. AB was incredible. But AB’s greatness was that he averaged 50 in Tests. Even in one day (ODIs). So, he’s an amazing player.”

He added, “But only if you look at T20 cricket; I’ve seen both of them a lot. AB, in IPL, he was not used properly. His real ability. So, in IPL we didn’t get that much juice out of him. Definitely (batted higher). And, sorry to say, but played for the wrong franchise. If he had played elsewhere, we could have seen the greatness of AB de Villiers.”

Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav was dismissed after scoring 12 runs in the second T20I against England at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai when India was chasing 166. Yadav was dismissed without troubling the scorers in the opening T20I at Kolkata.