AB de Villiers played for Royal Challengers Bangalore from 2011 to 2021. He was also one of the two former players to be inducted in RCB Hall of Fame.
New Delhi: Former South African batter AB de Villiers has kept his doors open for a coaching role at Royal Challengers Bangalore, the franchise for which he played for 10 years in Indian Premier League (IPL). The 40-year-old, who was the backbone of RCB’s middle-order from 2011 to 2021, revealed his conversations with Virat Kohli regarding spending some time at the franchise during the upcoming edition. However, there hasn’t been any official communication between him and the franchise yet.
De Villiers will be in India during IPL 2024 to join the broadcast team and is awaiting a call from head coach Any Flower and captain Faf du Plessis. “Nothing confirmed yet, Virat has hinted that he might want me to come over and spend a bit of time with him and some of the batters,” De Villers said on his YouTube channel.
“That call will come from Andy Flower, Faf and the team. For now, I’m just going to be in Mumbai for the first few weeks of the IPL. I’m doing a bit of commentating,” added the South African. De Villiers retired from cricket in 2022. During his time at RCB, the right-hander represented the franchise in 184 games, scoring 5162 runs at a strike rate of 151.69.
Post retirement, De Villiers focused on broadcasting and on his YouTube channel. Meanwhile, the legendary cricketer was upset after fellow Aiden Markram was removed as Sunrisers Hyderabad captain. Australian Pat Cummins will take charge in IPL 2024. De Villiers highlighted that the South African has won two successive SA20 titles as captain of Sunrisers Eastern Cape.
“A bit of an upset to me perhaps to see Aiden Markram being moved across and sort of just had to make way for Pat Cummins there, even though Aiden Markram has won back-to-back SA20 tournaments,” De Villiers said.