Former South African cricketer AB de Villiers has clarified his recent comments comparing Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar on overseas Test tours, which sparked strong reactions across social media platforms.
For the uninitiated, AB had earlier said that Kohli was better than Tendulkar at batting in bouncy, seam-friendly overseas conditions. However, he received a huge flak from the Indian cricketing fraternity.
“I think of someone like Sachin Tendulkar way back, who started that trend for India. Yet, he wasn’t as strong as someone like Virat Kohli, who was even better,” de Villiers had said on his YouTube channel.
While Tendulkar finished his Test career with 15921 runs and 51 centuries, Kohli retired from Test cricket in 2025 with 9230 runs. Clarifying his comments, AB revealed that he was only sharing his personal opinion.
These comments from AB de Villiers didn’t go down well with the former Indian cricketer Dodda Ganesh, as he commented on his official X handle, “Pass on the weed.”
“There was a bit of confusion with my Virat and Sachin comment. Remember, it’s my opinion. I’m not axing anyone. I’m telling you the way that I see it,” De Villiers said in another YouTube video.
“Yes, Sachin was the first to take things forward for India, showing all the youngsters what it takes to perform consistently everywhere around the world. I said that Virat sort of showed that there is a different dynamic to Indian batting by being good on the short ball. He found a way to counter that,” he added.
“We can always look at stats and say Virat’s stats were not as good abroad, especially in England, where he really struggled,” De Villiers said.
“He (Kohli) took what he learnt from Sachin and took it forward. His record is not as good as Sachin’s away from home, but we don’t always look at stats, especially not me,” de Villiers said.
