Former South Africa batsman Jonty Rhodes has said that AB de Villiers is the greatest fielder of all time in his opinion. The 35-year-old De Villiers had announced his retirement from international cricket on May 23, 2018.
De Villiers captained South Africa in all three formats, although after a series of injuries he stepped down from the Test captaincy. In 2017 he stepped down from captaining the national limited-overs teams and in May 2018 announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket.
AB de’s intention for T20 world cup
However, in January 2020 De Villiers expressed his intention to make an international comeback and play for South Africa in the 2020 T20 World Cup.
He gets his last chance to get in to the International team for the last time. South Africa’s head coach Mark Boucher has given AB De Villiers a deadline of June 1 to make himself available for the selection. Where he could make his international return for the Proteas lineup against Sri Lanka this year.
ABD “Greatest Fielder of All-Time” : Jonty Rhodes
Rhodes was doing an Instagram Live with former Zimbabwe pacer Pommie Mbangwa when he was asked to name the greatest fielder of all time.
“The greatest fielder of time? AB de Villiers. He is a wicket-keeper, he is at slip, he fields at mid-off, long-on, the guy is the greatest of all time,” Rhodes told Mbangwa. “Andrew Symonds was the first guy I saw who could field at every position. He could field at the boundary as he had a strong arm. For a big unit like Symonds to dive at full length, it took good amount of effort,” he added.
Further elaborating his point, Rhodes said that AB de Villiers reads the game very well.
“I have loved Suresh Raina, but the best fielder I have seen since Jonty Rhodes has to be AB de Villiers, he just moves so well, I think someone like Ben Stokes is at all the hotspots, AB de Villiers reads the game as well, and he is a batsman so that helps him in reading the game, from my prespective, De Villiers has to be the best fielder,” Rhodes said.
Rhodes is viewed as the greatest fielder in the world and during his playing days, the former South African cricketer made the backward-point position his own.
During the Road Safety World Series earlier this year, Rhodes was part of South Africa Legends side and his love for fielding was evident there as well. He was seen flying around and showing some remarkable sense of fielding.
Watch the full Instagram Live session :
