Abraham Benjamin de Villiers (born 17 February 1984), commonly known as AB de Villiers, is a South African former international cricketer, who is often regarded as one of the greatest players of modern day cricket because of his unmatched batting skills and athleticism in the field.[citation needed] He played for Titans in South African domestic cricket and Delhi Daredevils & Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL). In limited overs cricket he is an attacking batsman. He was named as the ICC ODI Player of the Year three times during his 15-year international career. He has the record of hitting the fastest ODI century in just 31 balls. He also records the fastest ODI 50 and 150.
De Villiers began his international career as a wicket-keeper-batsman, but he has played most often solely as a batsman. He batted at various positions in the batting order, but predominantly in the middle-order. Noted as one of the most innovative batsmen in the modern game, de Villiers is known for a range of unorthodox shots, particularly behind the wicket-keeper.
He made his international debut in a Test match against England from 2004 and first played a One Day International (ODI) in early 2005. His debut in Twenty20 International cricket came in 2006. He scored over 8,000 runs in both Test and ODI cricket and has a batting average of over fifty in both forms of the game.
De Villiers captained South Africa in all three formats, although after a series of injuries he stepped down from the Test captaincy. In 2017 he stepped down from captaining the national limited-overs teams and in May 2018 announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket.
