Ranking 5 best batsmen of the pull shot

4. AB de Villiers

One can’t afford to err in line and lengths to AB de Villiers, can they? In full flow, the South African can make a mockery of good deliveries, leave alone the bad ones. About playing the pull, he could be rated amongst the very best. He has the ability to smash even back-of-a-length balls with sheer disdain.

The West Indies bowlers generally dig the leather in and extract bounce from the surface. But De Villiers isn’t someone to get flustered by such tactics. In fact, three of this top four ODI scores is against the Caribbean team itself, including the fastest century off 31 balls in Johannesburg.

If it’s in his zone, ABD prefers to pick the bones out of it. He plays the short ferociously even on the front foot. In his career, the Pretoria-born scored 20,014 runs with 47 centuries to show for his efforts.