Tuesday, June 3, 2025. A tearjerker unfolded at the IPL 2025 final in Ahmedabad, where the Royal Challengers Bengaluru finally brought home a trophy that was always there for the taking for them. After starting out as contenders every season, faltering somewhere—twice in the finals—and becoming the chokers of 21st-century cricketing lore, the side edged out the Punjab Kings by a boundary-clearing shot. The bogey was banished.
The enduring image from the crazy post-game scenes was Virat Kohli crouching at the boundary rope, clutching his head in overwhelmed release. The other enduring image was AB de Villiers in a black sweater, cheering his former team on from the stands. The South African colossus, one of the game’s most stylish and dangerous batters, played for RCB for eleven seasons before retiring from the game in 2021.
“I fell in love with RCB,” de Villiers tells Esquire India on the sidelines of the India launch of Sneaker LAB, the eco-friendly sneaker- and apparel-care brand he's partnered with.
“It was the most fun I had playing for any franchise. I loved my 11 seasons at RCB. I had three seasons with Delhi Daredevils initially, which is now known as Delhi Capitals, but in 2011 joined RCB and never looked back. It was the best 11 seasons of my life with any domestic franchise. Obviously, got to mention the Titans where I grew up at, but didn't play a lot of games for them throughout my career because of international duties.”
Despite coming agonisingly close to the title for years and years, it was the heroics of RCB loyalists like de Villiers, Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli that kept their loyal legion of fans hopeful.
That is probably why cricket fans across India would engage in polls on who between Kohli and de Villiers was the better batter. A question that would sacrilegiously raise brows of those who knew what the Indian captain’s red-hot form meant for the game at that point of time.
“I’ve been travelling here for 24 years, since I was about 18 years old. Initially, it was a culture shock because it’s so much different. Literally everything—from the streets to the hotels, the cuisine, the weather. But you get used to it eventually, and so I fell in love with the place.”
India, says de Villiers, completely changed his life.
“The IPL, in particular, getting to know incredible people. Living in Bengaluru for 11 seasons was probably my favourite time of travelling over here to India,” recalls the 41-year-old, who proposed to his girlfriend Danielle Swart with the Taj Mahal as the backdrop and is known to have even considered naming his third child Taj.
De Villiers is known to possess just the kind of on-field serenity that many other Protea legends have displayed, be it Gary Kirsten, Jacques Kallis or Graeme Smith. One would see him walk into a game with three- or even four-fifths of an innings done—he needed no grand stage or platform—and unleash the calmest leather thunderstorm. Down the ground, over third man, deep extra cover—no part of that world would remain dry that day.
That was why, when he retired in 2021, the pall that descended over the cricketing world included the sorrow of Indian fans. Many of them had grown up watching de Villiers and Kohli stringing together fabled partnerships for RCB, toying with bowling attacks together. Sharing smiles, hugs and handshakes. The nickname Biscotti. A romance for the ages.
“Yeah, Virat's a really good friend of mine and we've come a long way together. We played a lot of cricket against each other initially and I won't necessarily say we liked each other then, but the minute I got picked up at the auction and we realised we're going to be playing together, he approached me in Johannesburg during a Test match and said, ‘Now, we're teammates’.”
“And we both were, I think, a little bit relieved because we got quite aggressive in the way that we play and very competitive, both of us. So, it was nice to sort of share a dressing room with him instead of always having to play against him.”
If the pair formed one of the shiniest batting partnerships for RCB, in T20s, they ruled tests for their respective sides together. When Kohli announced his retirement from the longest format of the game a few days ago, the wounds of de Villiers’ departure—a step fans over the world saw as a spectacle cut short (and dare I say, rightly so)—came rushing back.
“When you leave the international scene, it's quite emotional. Having played for your country for a very long time, it's always a tough decision to make and for Virat to leave Test Cricket—it was obviously something he's been thinking about for a long time. And knowing him, you would have trusted his heart completely, his gut feeling, his instinct. And it would have come from the heart—and I think that's the one thing that all fans just should know.”
All great things end, and sports fans usually hold on whatever is next for their idols. De Villiers, the patron saint of innovation in batting, still follows the IPL closely.
“Maybe even more than what I used to. I have a YouTube show and I'm pretty much active on there. I follow the points table all the time and sort of try and read the dynamic of the IPL—the games... where the results are headed.”
He names Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Ayush Mhatre and Priyansh Arya among the names that left him thrilled this season. While Suryavanshi, just 14 years old, and Arya, 24, scored scintillating hundreds, Mhatre, the 17-year-old Chennai Super Kings opener scored a sublime 94 off 48 balls against RCB. A lot of chatter online in the recent past has suggested that another CSK recruit, a 22-year-old from South Africa, might be the next AB de Villiers.
“Dewald Brevis is a wonderful player. And I do feel he can be better than certain AB de Villiers one day. He's got all the potential in the world. I have a really good connection with him. We talk a lot about cricket and his future. I was super delighted for him when he got an opportunity at CSK this year. I wish it was RCB.”
The comparison isn’t just for their attacking batting styles, but superb fielding and catching, something that batters would be constantly worried about with de Villiers in the deep. Brevis’ running grab of a well-set Jacob Bethell in the recently concluded IPL again reminded many of the electric catches de Villiers pocketed without breaking a sweat.
“I grew up in a sports-crazy family—I have two older brothers, and both my parents also love sport—golf, tennis, rugby, cricket, swimming, athletics… you name it. We competed in everything.”
“And that helped me a lot, being very active from a young age. That was literally my hobby. So, whenever we had an opportunity, we would go out onto the lawn and compete in any kind of ball sports,” recalls de Villiers.
De Villiers’ knack for analysis and technique is well-known—he once spoke about batting in a ‘box’. Before Suryakumar Yadav, ABD was the OG Mr 360, a title he still finds “pretty cool”. “I never thought in my wildest dreams I would get a nickname just doing something I love,” he says.
And he approaches fielding in the same way. “I think what helped was anticipation and awareness, and really a deep desire to want the ball to come in my direction. I don't think that's something that comes naturally to everyone. But I think that was my biggest strength, is just really wanting the ball. So I would always get myself in the positions to try and just be in the game and somehow managing to have an impact on the game’s result.”
As opposed to Kohli or the more hard-hitting clutch batters in the biz, de Villiers was seldom about muscle, or pushing the body to its limits. It certainly didn't seem so—but he does like to work out and he says he loves to work on his core. You do need it for all the laps and reverse laps that he nailed with unbelievable elegance.
“I love going to the gym but I don't pick up a lot of weights these days. But lots of core work, lots of planking. And then I love to play padel. Instead of doing treadmill work or running on the road, I see padel as my cardio work. It’s 90 minutes of an average heart rate of around 155, which is fantastic. And while you're doing it, you're actually playing a game and enjoying it.”
It's been 10 years to the unbelievable 144 that he scored versus the West Indies. Coming in with 78 balls to go in the innings, de Villiers rained hell in Johannesburg on the errant Windies in a one-day international. The same year, he played 297 balls to score 43 when a Test match needed to be saved. But with maddeningly fast, run-of-the-mill 100s becoming a regularity in modern-day T20 cricket, could it be said that performances that took genuine skill, innovation and batsmanship are losing their sheen?
"Cricket is definitely in a weird spot at the moment where we see a lot of cricket, with all the franchises. It's very difficult to say what's right and what's wrong. I feel we still see the best of Test cricket, still, even though some people might think it's sort of going down in the trend. Same with ODIs—you look forward to those big tournaments, the ODI World Cups, the ICC Champions Trophy. I think generally cricket is just in a really good place. Where it's going to be in 10 years from now is very difficult to predict. But I loved all formats, I really did."
In the same IPL final that RCB buried all their ghosts with, the most memorable thing that was said was by Virat himself. "You know, this moment (RCB winning IPL) is right up there with the best moments I've had in my career. But it still marks five levels under Test cricket. That's how much I value Test cricket," he said at the post-match presentation.
And de Villiers concurs. "Test cricket was probably my favourite because I felt as a player that was the hardest test and the biggest challenge. I know Virat recently said the same thing and most cricketers will tell you that. The only guys that won't tell you that are guys that don't play test cricket."
"But it is difficult to balance it out. That's up to the ICC, the big powers of the cricketing world, BCCI, all the boards around the world to make the right decisions to make sure cricket will stay healthy for a very long period to come."
Versatility was always AB's strong suit. He's batted at most positions, kept wickets in the absence of regulars like Mark Boucher and Quinton de Kock. And post-retirement, he's kept busy with other partnerships—be it promoting volunteering for urban infrastructure improvement and mental health advocacy, or associations with brands like Sneaker LAB.
"I see it as a long-term partnership similar to most of my partnerships with cricket teams. I stayed loyal to those franchises for as long as I could and as long as I performed. And that's the way I see life after cricket as well. Here, too, you have fantastic products that I always have in my hand luggage when I travel. Keeps my sneakers, other products as and even apparel clean and shining. I'm very happy to be associated with them."
Spotless carnage and shiny sneakers? That's AB de Villiers for you.