AB de Villiers

Abraham Benjamin de Villiers (born 17 February 1984), is a South African cricketer. 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. His name was also featured in Wisden Cricketers of the Decade at the end of 2019.

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 and destructive batsmen in the modern era, 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 in 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 is one of the very few batsmen to have a batting average of over fifty in both forms of the game. He holds the record for the fastest ODI century in just 31 balls. He also recorded the fastest ODI 50 and 150.

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. However, in January 2020 De Villiers expressed his intention to make an international comeback and play for South Africa in the 2020 T20 World Cup.