AB de Villiers. A supreme talent. An enigma. A genius. Call him whatever you prefer, but what doesn’t change with the adjective used to describe him is the truth that he is the most innovative batsman of this generation. When on song, even the best bowlers in the world are clueless about what to do next to stop him from wreaking havoc on their team.
He delightfully mixes an orthodox approach to batting with such outrageously unorthodox stroke-play that cricket experts are unable to find proper cricketing terms to describe it. Have you ever wondered what would be going on in the mind of such a player when he is on strike and the bowler is running in to bowl?
Let’s see what goes on in AB’s mind in such a situation:
#5 Where’s the loudest cheer coming from:
“AB…AB…AB…” is something we have all got used to hearing whenever this man comes out to bat in limited overs cricket. His fan following at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, where he plays all his home games in the IPL, is unparalleled. It is said that the noise reverberates there because of the stadium’s design, and thus, feels much louder than it actually is.
AB with his penchant for playing unorthodox shots, must surely be thinking about the section of the crowd that is cheering the loudest for him, and treating them with a big six. The more the noise, the more the sixes, and the section that’s cheering the loudest will get the maximum chances of catching them.
And we’ve all seen him do this more often than not, haven’t we? As the volume from the stands grows louder, so do the energy at the crease and his adrenaline rush. Result – the ball goes soaring into the stands for the cheering crowd to get their hands on!
#4 It’s revenge time:
Batsmen have a very sharp memory, it’s said. No batsman forgets that a certain bowler got the better of him the last time they played, and AB is no different.
His assaults on poor bowlers mostly give the impression that it isn’t just today’s innings that is on his mind; it’s also the last time they met, and hence, it’s revenge time now. God save the helpless bowler!
AB’s mind would be constantly telling him to smash the bowler out of the attack, and until that happens, there’s no sound sleep tonight. A bowler who got him out the last match would be subjected to such a brutal “assault” in this one that he would be afraid of bowling to AB the next time the two teams play.
#3 Anything you do, I can do better:
Whenever AB bats, by luck or by design, he finds an extremely talented batsman batting with him at the other end. A few names are those of Amla, Faf, JP, de Kock, Virat and Gayle; all supreme stroke-players who bat with him for various teams he plays for. But is there anyone out there who can out-do AB at his art?
No batsman would ever admit it, but when you play with such players around you, there is always an eagerness from within to try and do better than what your batting partner does on the day. To try and match your partner stroke for stroke and to try and outscore him in terms of run-scoring speed as well as effectiveness are things that every batsman aspires to do in his innings.
AB’s mind would be telling him the same. If Virat hits a great cover drive, he would want to hit an even better one the next over. If Gayle hits one out of the ground, he would want to hit a bigger six at the next opportunity. He would want to be the batsman whose innings is remembered at the end of the match rather than any of his batting partners’, and that’s what his mind would be constantly reminding him of.
#2 Let’s break some records today:
New Zealand’s Corey Anderson broke the record set by Boom Boom Afridi in 1996 for the fastest ODI ton. AB though, in a mind-boggling feat which took place 2 years ago, broke the record again by smashing a 31 ball ODI hundred. Yes, 31 deliveries for a hundred!
En route, he broke the record for the fastest 50 as well and narrowly missed the fastest 150 as he was dismissed for an unimaginable 149 off 44 deliveries.
Once you achieve such feats, it’s impossible to not think of breaking more records and set new ones every time you step on to the field, isn’t it? The aim would be to set records that will stand the test of time and would be near insurmountable.
AB’s mind would surely be telling him to go for more glory in every innings, and it’s hardly an unreasonable thought when you possess so much talent. The highest Test and one-day scores, and the fastest Test ton and fifty are a few records that still elude him, but once he’s broken the barrier, his mind would be egging him on to go for it each time he steps out in the middle.
#1 Something new for the crowd to see:
Cover drives, square cuts, flicks, pulls, straight drives. These strokes are for mortals. “Batsmen” play these strokes, don’t they? A “Super-human” like AB has to play strokes which no other batsman would even dream about playing, simply because of the sheer ability the guy possesses. So what does someone blessed with such supreme talent think in this regard?
His mind would be telling him to try and bring out some truly outrageous strokes from his vast and seemingly unending repertoire in each game, so that spectators can go back home having witnessed something they would cherish for the rest of their lives.
Sample these – Sitting down on the right knee and flicking a pacer over fine leg for a six. Lapping the ball over short third man with a reverse sweep off a fast bowler who is trying a yorker. Reverse sweeping spinners off any length and with enough power to send the ball into the stands!
Such audacious strokes can only be played by this man, and there isn’t any doubt that his mind would be constantly driving him to try and execute something new in every innings he plays.
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