Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar, who has now donned the hat of an expert, has made a shocking claim by saying that legendary South African batter and captain Ab de Villiers played for the wrong franchise in the cash-rich Indian Premier League. The former South African cricketer made his IPL debut in 2008 for Delhi Capitals (formerly Delhi Daredevils) and played three seasons for them. He joined Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL 2011 mega auction and played 11 seasons for the Bengaluru-based franchise before calling time on his career in 2021.
De Villiers scored 5162 runs in 184 IPL matches but never managed to win an IPL title. He played in the IPL final in 2011 and 2016 with RCB but on both occasions ended up on the losing side.
Despite his failure to win the IPL trophy during his 14-year association with the league as a player, De Villiers is one of the greatest cricketers to participate in the IPL. But according to Manjrekar, De Villiers was not used properly in the IPL. The former India batter feels De Villiers should have batted higher up the order, and he went on to add that Ab played for the wrong franchise.
During the Star Sports show, when asked if Suryakumar Yadav has eclipsed AB de Villiers as Mr. 360? Manjrekar said, “I’ll say yes, because of the match-winning impact. AB was incredible. But AB’s greatness was that he averaged 50 in Tests. Even in one day (ODIs). So, he’s an amazing player. But only if you look at T20 cricket; I’ve seen both of them a lot. AB, in IPL, he was not used properly. His real ability. So, in IPL we didn’t get that much juice out of him. Definitely (batted higher). And, sorry to say, but played for the wrong franchise. If he had played elsewhere, we could have seen the greatness of AB de Villiers.”