Rohit Sharma names AB de Villiers as his favourite cricketer

India opener Rohit Sharma has had a memorable World Cup but after that tournament, he has so far hit only one international fifty. Rohit’s bat was not at its best in the recent T20I series against South Africa. The 32-year-old dashing batsman has also been picked in the Test squad for the series against the Proteas starting October 2. Chief selector MSK Prasad recently admitted that Rohit is even considered to open the innings in the longer format after KL Rahul failed to impress and got overlooked for the SA series.

However, Rohit fell for a nought in the three-day match against South Africans while leading the Indian Board President’s XI. He survived just two deliveries after coming out to open with Mayank Agarwal and this again could raise fresh questions over his qualification to play the red-ball cricket.

But whatever be his performance on the ground, India’s limited-overs vice-captain continues to be a popular figure among the fans. The Mumbai batsman who is the most successful captain in the Indian Premier League (IPL), revealed the name of his favourite cricketer and he is also from the country India are currently playing against – South Africa.

During one of his live sessions last year with fans on the social media, Rohit revealed that his favourite cricketer is none other than AB de Villiers. The former South Africa captain abruptly quit international cricket last year citing fatigue and his team missed him badly in this year’s World Cup in England. De Villiers, however, continues to play in franchise cricket and still is one of the main pillars of the Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL.

ABD has scored over 20k runs in international cricket

De Villiers, 35, made his international debut in 2004 and played 114 Tests, 228 ODIs and 78 T20Is to score over 20,000 runs and hit 47 hundreds. He has also slammed over 8,000 runs in 295 T20s at a staggering strike rate of almost 150.

Coming back to Rohit, the batsman has his task cut out if he wants to make serious amends to his Test fortunes. Rohit had hit back-to-back hundreds in his first two innings in the longer format in 2013 but could play only 27 matches since then and 2018 to score 1,585 runs at an average of less than 40.