When we talk about top batsmen in any format of international cricket, two names that definitely come to our mind are AB De Villiers and Virat Kohli. They are undoubtedly the greatest performers of the cricketing world in the 21st century and absolutely match-winners. De Villiers has an unorthodox and 360 degrees style of playing, while Kohli likes to keep it conventional. Both of them have shown great consistency in all formats of the game, and that too for a considerable time. Thus, it can become quite difficult to choose the one between them. But if you want an answer to who is the best, then let’s compare their performances in different formats, side by side.
Test cricket
Kohli has played around 86 test matches so far and he has an aggregate of 7240 runs, with an average of 53.62. Whereas, De Villers has scored 8765 runs at 50.66 on average. Kohli has scored 27 hundreds and many more to follow, whereas De Villers has 22 test hundreds in his pocket.
“Virat Kohli just always seems to be making runs. Sort of a simple technique, classic technique which obviously applies in test cricket but he has also got the power game,” South African batsman Rassie Van Der Dussen said during an interview to Betway.
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Kohli is an aggressive player who loves dominating the scoreboard, De Villers also does the same but he has often put up a defensive game, whenever the South African team needed it. Also, home and away matches play a vital role in deciding a player’s performance, and this is where De Villiers is a bit ahead. Recently, Kohli’s numbers have dipped due to his mediocre performance.
ODI cricket
There is no question about the fact that both of them play the top game when it comes to ODIs. De Villiers has scored 9577 runs at an average of 53.5, whereas Kohli has scored 11,867 runs at an average of 93.25. Looking at their records, both of them are at par when it comes to performance in ODI cricket.
T20I cricket
There is a big difference between them when it comes to this format of cricket. Considering the records, Kohli is miles ahead compared to De Villiers; he is leading an all-time T20 chart with 2794 runs, whereas De Villiers is at 1672 runs. The South African batsmen have performed quite well when it comes to T20Is but Kohli is definitely at the top when it comes to this format of the game.
IPL tournaments
Both Kohli and De Villiers have played all the 12 seasons of IPL. Both of them had their ups and downs throughout different seasons of the league and nobody played more consistently than the other. Thus, when it comes to IPL, it becomes quite tough to compare both of them; they both have performed brilliantly and dominated the attacks. They have both played in the same team RCB, and they wanted the team to win an IPL title.
Both Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers are legends, undoubtedly, and their names will be engraved in gold in cricketing history. They have indeed mastered all the formats of the game and stand neck-to-neck in terms of performance.
