What The End of ABD The International Batsman Means For South Africa In T20 cricket

The big decision was finally made. After months and years of speculation on his return, ABD – AB de Villiers finally announced that he had taken the call not to make a comeback for the Proteas in international cricket. While this has generated a lot of debate for and against the decision in the social media, there is no doubt that South Africa needed De Villiers in what is probably their worst phase in history!

De Villiers has been one of the greatest batsmen to have played the game and along with Virat Kohli was unarguably the finest batsman of his era across formats. His record in Test cricket and ODIs is outstanding and his void is deeply felt in the XI – South Africa are currently ranked 7 in Test cricket and 5 in ODIs after dominating both the formats when he was at his peak in the late 2000s and early 2010s. However the impact his retirement has had in Test cricket and the 50-over format for South Africa is a subject to be analyzed later.

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We look at how South Africa have sorely missed ABD – the batsman in T20 cricket.

De Villiers has a stunning record in all T20 cricket – 9318 runs in 312 innings at an average of 37.72 and strike rate of 150.48 with 4 hundreds and 69 fifties. His record in domestic T20 is amongst the best in the world of which the major contributor is the IPL – the most coveted and competitive T20 league in the world – the competition in which sometimes supersedes international cricket.

De Villiers has an aggregate of 5056 runs in 162 batting innings at an average of 40.77 and strike rate of 152.38. He is second only to David Warner on the highest runs tally list in IPL history. ABD is also only one of the three players in the IPL (min. 1500 runs) to have an average of in excess of 40 and strike rate of more than 140 – the other two being Warner and Chris Gayle. More remarkably, he has a higher scoring rate than the Universe Boss and is the only batsman in IPL history to average above 40 and score at a rate of above 150 per hundred balls!

De Villiers makes use of the minimum of resources and returns with the maximum output – that is his greatness in T20 cricket. He does not play anchor or accumulator for RCB but the playmaker in the middle order changes matches scoring big runs at a lightning pace. He combines the run-scoring appetite of a Kohli together with the sheer destructiveness of a Gayle and consistently produces one high impact match-defining knock after the other, season after season.

ABD has a mind-boggling record for the Challengers in the IPL. He has scored 4385 runs in 136 innings at an average of 42.57 and strike rate of 159.68 with two hundreds and 37 fifties – and this is when he bats at number 4 or 5 when the opportunities to score the big runs are lesser. He has scored in excess of 300 runs at a strike rate of 160-plus in as many as 5 out of nine seasons for the franchise since 2012.

His comparison with skipper Kohli summarizes what ABD is for the RCB in the IPL. Kohli has scored 6076 runs in 191 innings at an average of 37.97 and strike rate of 130.41 and is considered an all-time IPL great! AB has an average almost 5 runs higher and scores 30 runs per 100 hundreds quicker than Kohli! What does this make ABD then?

In comparison with his domestic T20 record, his numbers for South Africa are not that great – 1672 runs in 75 innings at an average of 26.12 and strike rate of 135.16 – good when seen in isolation but not outstanding. But it is the impact he has with his performances that stands out.

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South Africa had the second-best record in T20I cricket (in terms of win-loss ratio) during ABD’s career. They won 59 of the 98 matches they played between 2006 and 2017 and were second just marginally behind Pakistan. However there were two distinct parts to this period. South Africa were the most dominant in the format between 2006 and 2013 in which they won 39 of the 61 matches they played in the format for the best win-loss ratio in the world.

ABD did not play a significant part with the bat during this time-frame scoring just 867 runs in 48 innings at an average of 21.67 and strike rate of 121.25 and the high impact innings were few and far in between.

Then came the transformation, interestingly in a period when South Africa lost their momentum and were pushed to number 6 in T20 cricket. South Africa won just 20 of the 37 matches they played in this period and it is during this time they saw the best of ABD in the format. He scored 805 runs in 27 innings at an average of 33.54 and strike rate of 154.21 with 6 fifties in this time-frame. His scoring rate placed him at number five for a minimum of 400 runs in the period.

ABD scored 30-plus in 11 matches in this period and more significantly South Africa won 8 of these encounters. His finest innings came against England in the World T20 in 2014 in Chattogram when he blasted an unbeaten 69 off just 28 deliveries. ABD hammered 239 runs in 9 matches at an average of 34.14 and strike rate of 170.71 across the two World T20 tournaments in Bangladesh 2014 and India 2016 though he was inconsistent and could not quite realise his true potential on the biggest stage in T20 cricket.

However, he gave enough glimpses of his prodigious talent in other bilateral series. AB – the opener smashed 71 off 29 deliveries in a 172-run chase against England to seal the two-match series 2-0 in Johannesburg in 2016. His versatility as much as his skill were on display in the format for the country. He floated in the top four producing match-winning knocks from wherever he batted. He hammered 46 off just 20 deliveries batting at number 4 against England in Taunton in 2017.

He had a splendid 2017 scoring 304 runs in 7 innings for South Africa at an average of 50.66 and strike rate of 152. But just when he was reaching his peak for South Africa in T20I cricket finally delivering the high impact innings on a consistent basis, difference with the board over a number of issues and the demands and rigour of the three formats and the IPL forced ABD to make a choice and he decided to quit from international cricket.

South Africa has gone spiralling down since their greatest batsmen ever bid goodbye to playing for his country. In T20I cricket since his retirement, they have played 32 matches and lost 17 for a win-loss ratio of 0.823 which places them at number 6 amongst the major cricketing nations of the world. They are currently also sitting at number six in the ICC T20I Rankings.

With the World T20 just a few months away, it would have been an ideal time for the in-form ABD, who returned with some stunning performances for RCB this season, to make a comeback for South Africa and help them win a major ICC World trophy – something that has even eluded the great ABD!

Sadly, that is how it will now remain.

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