South Africa is indubitably a land of numerous talented sportsmen, and Ab de Villiers is one of them who is an eminent sports personality known for his extraordinary batting and wicket-keeping skills. He is a renowned cricketer who is also known by other popular names like Mr 360 and ABD by his fans. This skilled player was born on February 17 in a year, 1984, hailing particularly from Bela-Bela Limpopo province, South Africa. He did his schooling from warm baths primary school, followed by high school attainment from Afrikaans boys high school in Pretoria.
Ab de Villiers has earned name and fame within a short span of time owing to his diligence and perseverance. He has achieved a milestone in cricket by earning huge success. Also, his unique batting style of hitting the ball from every angle of the field against any bowler and his persona have made him one of the finest players in the history of cricket.
The full name of Ab de Villiers is Abraham Benjamin de Villiers. He is fond of non-veg food, in particular, seafood and finds great pleasure in golfing, swimming, singing and traveling. He admires Virat Kohli a lot as a batsman and Gerrit Deist as a bowler. Besides, he is happily married to Danielle De Villiers, who is a social worker and has two sons from his marriage.
Overall, he has a net worth of $20 million.
Ab de Villiers embarked on his career from a domestic level at a very early age, he was a sports enthusiast since a teenager and finally started to play for northern in his home country, and he remained active in this team from 2003 to 2004, then he was part of Titans multiply in the sun foil series, momentum one day cup and ram slam t20 challenge till 2004.
Throughout these years, he played extremely well and eventually, his versatility and great skills were noticed by the selectors as they were truly blown away and decided to give him a big break from playing at the international level.
In 2004, Abraham Benjamin de Villiers was all set to show his potential before the entire world as he was debuting as an international cricketer in a test match. Dating back to December 17, 2004, ab de Villiers played the first international test match of his career against England at the age of just 20, and he played well and was applauded too. Soon after this match, he got various opportunities to prove his capabilities. Then in 2005, he played the first ODI (one day international) match and twenty 20 international cricket in the following year. So, he was rising gradually yet gracefully.
The player came in the limelight after achieving some striking records in ODI matches, some of which are mentioned below:
All these achievements proved his caliber, and finally, he became the captain of the ODI as well as the T20 team. This surely was the biggest accomplishment of his career. Later on, he continued to play effortlessly in all his matches and come out as a winner and achiever; his playing technique, excellent form, attacking and defending ways have really made him a player who is born once in a thousand years.
Lastly, his contribution to the IPL has further added a feather to his cap. He certainly was at the peak of his career during IPL’s. He played like a superstar in every match and ultimately become the favorite of Indians.
Ab de Villiers has achieved almost everything which a cricketer desires. He was totally content with his jaw-dropping journey but, surprisingly, shocked everyone by announcing his retirement from international cricket in 2018 before the commencement of the World Cup 2019. This revelation shocked cricket admirers all around the world, but in the end, they accepted it with a heavy heart.
This 360 batsman has surely inspired many and took a wise decision of abandoning international cricket as he believed that there is a need for new players to enter the field who can prove their caliber just like their senior players.