AB de Villiers Graeme Smith
Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers. Photo by Duif du Toit/Gallo Images)

Former South African skipper, Graeme Smith gave his best wishes to AB de Villiers for his second innings. Surprisingly, de Villiers had decided to hang up his boots from the International arena on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, AB de Villiers made his International debut under the captaincy of Graeme Smith. De Villiers made 28 and 14 in his maiden Test match against England in 2004.

Since then Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers shared a great bonhomie both on and off the field. Thus, de Villiers took his early lessons from the book of Smith.

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Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers. Photo by Duif du Toit/Gallo Images.

de Villiers sent shock waves in the cricket world.

AB de Villiers came up with the most daring shots in his career. Taking into account his fine career, the South African talismanic batsman will go down as a modern day great.

De Villiers played 114 Test matches, 228 One-Dayers and 78 Twenty20 Internationals for the South African team.

He scored 8,765 runs in the red-ball form, 9,577 runs in the 50-over format and 1,672 runs in the shortest format.

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AB de Villiers called it a day. Credits: Getty Images.

Meanwhile, AB de Villiers took the hard decision, as he claimed he is ‘tired’ and has run out of gas.

However, de Villiers recently played for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League. De Villiers accumulated 480 runs in the 11 innings he played for the Men in Red.

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In fact, de Villiers has confirmed he will continue to play for his domestic team, Titans. Furthermore, de Villiers would be seen plying on his trade in the different T20 leagues around the globe.

It's Been an Absolute Privilege, Graeme Smith Bids Adieu to AB de Villiers
Credits: AFP

There is no doubt that de Villiers will go down as a modern day great. De Villiers always respected the game and thus played in the right spirit.

Consequently, de Villiers will be missed. Furthermore, it would be difficult for Cricket South Africa to fill in the big shoes of the talismanic batsman. Graeme Smith took to Twitter, as his post read,

“Nothing but love ❤ @ABdeVilliers17 it’s been an absolute privilege”.

Here is Graeme Smith message:

Cricket is my first love. I want to be a wordsmith. I want to weave magic with my words.