AB de Villiers starred with the bat as Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Mumbai Indians by two wickets to open the IPL 2021 campaign on a winning note at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. However, many former cricketers including former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh questioned why the Proteas superstar batted down in the order.
De Villiers played a vital knock of 48 runs from just 27 balls with the help of four fours and two sixes to guide Royal Challengers Bangalore to a two-wicket win. With RCB needing two runs off as many balls, he got run out at the striker’s end after sharp pieces of work from Krunal Pandya and Ishan Kishan. Though the Challengers came out trumps, Yuvraj Singh believes that being their “best batsman”, AB De Villiers should have been slotted at three or four.
“Don’t understand @ABdeVilliers17 batting at no 5 !!? our best batsmen after opening have to come at no 3 or no 4 in t20 just an opinion,” Yuvraj Singh wrote on Twitter.
Don’t understand @ABdeVilliers17 batting at no 5 !!? 🤷♂️your best batsmen after opening have to come at no 3 or no 4 in t20 just an opinion #MIvRCB #IPL2021
— Yuvraj Singh (@YUVSTRONG12) April 9, 2021
Virat Kohli clarifies AB de Villiers’ batting position
However, Virat Kohli while speaking at the post-match press conference revealed why AB de Villiers batted in the lower order. The RCB skipper stated that keeping in mind his versatility and his fear among oppositions, De Villiers was sent lower down the batting order. Incidentally, Kohli opened the innings with Washington Sundar in the absence of Devdutt Padikkal while debutant Rajat Patidar followed at No.3. Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell came out to bat next followed by AB De Villiers.
“The opposition gets nervous about AB. We have depth in the batting which we want to utilise.
“AB is probably the only player who’s so versatile and can do what he did on slow pitches today, so we have to understand. If there’s a partnership on, you might see a totally different order. But in a tricky chase, you want some options in the back end, where the opposition thinks it’s not over till he gets out,” Kohli stated.
RCB’s second match is against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on April 14 (Wednesday) at the same MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
