The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 is just around the corner, and fans couldn’t keep calm to witness the 16th edition of the league. It is their excitement only that they are sharing their favourite moments from the league on social media and are rating players on the basis of their performance in the tournament so far. Many players themselves have also come out and shared their experiences of playing in the world’s biggest and richest league.
While many cricket enthusiasts consider AB de Villiers to be one of the greatest to play IPL, India’s veteran opener Gautam Gambhir doesn’t think so. Gambhir has made a statement on Star sports ahead of the IPL 2023 and said that de Villiers played for personal records and anybody can score runs easily at the Chinnaswamy, which is the home ground of the team the latter has represented for a decade in IPL.
“AB de Villiers only had personal records in the IPL. Anybody could have scored runs in Chinnaswamy stadium,” said Gambhir.
Notably, de Villiers was part of the Delhi Daredevils ( now Delhi Capitals) and Royal Challengers Banglore (RCB) team from 2007-2021 in IPL and recently took retirement from the league. The South African star was part of DC from 2008 to 2010 before joining RCB in 2011. However, fans didn’t seem to like Gambhir’s criticism of ‘Mr 360′ and trolled the 41-year-old veteran Delhi cricketer by comparing his stats with the former.
As far as Gambhir’s and de Villiers’ records in Bengaluru are concerned, the former Proteas captain had amassed 1960 runs in 61 matches at Chinnaswamy, while Gambhir’s performance has been below par at the ground with just 302 runs in 11 matches.
Although in the same show, Gambhir also made it clear that he considers Suresh Raina a way better performer than RCB star, and to support his statement emphasised on four coveted trophies that ‘Mr IPL’ won.
