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“I Didn’t Really Like Him…”: AB De Villiers On The First Impression He Had Of Virat Kohli

Aakash Saini

AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli [Source: @worshipVK/x]AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli [Source: @worshipVK/x]

AB de Villiers has revealed that he did not initially liked Virat Kohli and only became friends with him once they got to know each other at the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). Earlier this month, Kohli confirmed his retirement from Test cricket to conclude a 14-year glorious chapter of his career.

While speaking in a video on the ICC, de Villiers stated that he found Kohli too competitive at times and an “absolute pain to play against”.

Villiers reveals shocking first reaction on Kohli

AB de Villiers described Virat Kohli as one of his “cricketing brothers”, whose competitiveness is very similar to his own nature. However, the legendary South African batter also added that he initially did not like Kohli because he was an “absolute pain to play against”. He said:

“Virat is like one of my cricketing brothers, someone I really grew fond of when I got to know him better. He's an absolute pain to play against, so before I knew him I didn't really like him a lot because he was so good and so competitive, very similar to me with that competitive nature.”

AB de Villiers further revealed that he got to know Virat Kohli a lot better at the RCB franchise. He added:

“Then I got to know him at RCB, I got to know him a lot better. We became family friends, became brothers and also became great partners at the wicket when we played together, really understood each other out there and I probably enjoyed every second of playing with him.”

Both AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli played IPL together for the RCB between the years 2011 and 2021 until the former announced his pre-mature retirement from all forms of the game. The two cricketers formed one of the most successful pairs in IPL history, scoring over 3,000 runs in partnerships from 76 innings.