Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Abraham Benjamin de Villiers

Abraham Benjamin better known as AB De Villiers gave an early indication of his versatility in his debut season against England in 2004/05 when he opened the batting, was used in the middle-order and also kept wicket. In addition, it soon became evident that he was going to become the natural successor to Herschelle Gibbs as the Proteas’ best fielder.

In the same series he made his maiden Test century at SuperSport Park and quickly established himself as one of the most aggressive and entertaining players in world cricket.

He made key centuries in the Proteas’ away Test series victories in England and Australia in 2008. Earlier in that year he had become the first South African to score a Test double century against India.

Here’s a list of things you may have or may not have known about Abraham Benjamin de Villiers:

1. Abraham Benjamin de Villiers (born 17 February 1984) is a South African cricketer, who captains the South African One Day International (ODI) team,
2. Abraham Benjamin de Villiers is also part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.
3. Abraham Benjamin de Villiers is the son of Dr Abraham P de Villiers.
4. Abraham Benjamin de Villiers attended Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Afrikaans High School for Boys, also known as Affies), a public school located in Pretoria.
5. De Villiers is a right-handed batsman, who, in a very short space of time, has accumulated many runs in Tests including 16 centuries and 32 fifties.
6. Abraham Benjamin de Villiers still holds the record for most Test innings without registering a duck (78), before being dismissed for nought against Bangladesh in November 2008.
7. De Villiers also holds the second-highest individual score by a South African batsman in an innings, with 278*. Until 2012, he was an occasional wicket-keeper for South Africa, although since the retirement of regular Test keeper Mark Boucher and under his own ODI captaincy he has started to regularly keep wicket for the national side in Tests, ODIs and T20s.
8. In December 2013, de Villiers became the ninth batsman in history to simultaneously hold the top position in the ICC batting rankings in both tests and ODIs. In June 2014, he won the SA cricketer of the year award.
9. In 2009 Abraham Benjamin de Villiers was nominated as ICC Cricketer of the year and ICC Test Player of the year.
10. Abraham Benjamin de Villiers and Hashim Amla hold the ODI third wicket all-time partnership record of 238, established against Pakistan in 2013. He is also the joint second fastest batsman in the history of the game to score 6 000 ODI runs.