AB de Villiers is a phenomenon and batsmen in his calibre come along very rarely. He has extraordinary talent and can play ridiculously good shots that other batsmen can only dream of. He has fantastic timing and his ability to find gaps is of tremendous value. He is without a doubt the best batsman in the world and his nr 1 ranking on the one-day and nr 3 on the test rankings shows his all-round contribution. He is a free flowing batsman and combines brutal power and strength with elegance.
He is an extremely gifted cricketer. De Villiers, who picked up 5 of the 9 awards at the recent CSA awards, is an world class fielder who covers ground lightning fast and can take outrageous catches. He is a wonderful runner between the wickets, a not that bad 6th bowler, a superb captain and an eye popping batsman. Add all this up and you have one heck of a cricketer.
He has an average of 53.66 in one-day internationals at a strike rate of 99 and an average of 52.09 in tests and if you combine it, it is the second best ever only after team mate Hashim Amla.
De Villiers made his debut in all 3 formats in 2004, but struggled for consistency in the first four years of his international career and had an average of 37 at the beginning of 2008. He scored the third most runs at the IPL in 2009 and has not looked back since then, having an average of 66 in the past 7 years.