Early career After a spell in the South Africa U19 team, he made his debut for the
Titans in 2003/4. He made his Test debut as a 20-year-old on 16 November 2004 against England at
Port Elizabeth. He made a strong impression opening the batting, but was dropped down the order for the second Test and also handed the wicket-keeping gloves. In this match, he made a match-saving half-century from number seven. However, he found himself at the top of the order again for the final Test of the series. Despite a good tour of the Caribbean where he scored 178 to help South Africa seal a Test series win, his rapid progress was slowed on the
tour of Australia in 2005. Despite playing
Shane Warne well and becoming the second-youngest and second-fastest South African to reach 1,000 Test runs after
Graeme Pollock, he struggled and made just 152 runs in 6 innings. De Villiers was back in form soon and gave the selectors a sign by producing his then highest one-day score of 92 not out, which included 12 fours and one six, from 98 balls against India in the 2006 winter series. De Villiers had a reputation as an outstanding fielder, typified by a diving run-out of
Simon Katich of Australia in 2006, when he dived to stop the ball, and while still lying on his stomach facing away from the stumps, he tossed the ball backwards over his shoulder and effected a direct hit. This has also led people to make further comparisons of him to Jonty Rhodes, who was also one of the finest fielders of his generation. His fielding positions other than wicket-keeper were first and second slip and cover.
2007 Cricket World Cup in West Indies Going into the
2007 Cricket World Cup, de Villiers was in good form in ODIs, having scored four fifties in five matches against India and Pakistan. In the early stages of the tournament his form was poor with three failures including a duck against the
Netherlands in a match where his team broke various records for batting, although he scored a 92 in the first round against Australia. He made his maiden ODI hundred, 146 from just 130 balls including 5 sixes and 12 fours, in the Super 8 game against West Indies on 10 April 2007. He had to bat with a runner for the latter stages of his innings due to a combination of cramps, heat exhaustion and dehydration. His innings consisted of a second wicket partnership of 170 with
Jacques Kallis and a third wicket partnership of 70 with
Herschelle Gibbs. De Villiers' innings helped set up a total of 356/4 from 50 overs. His batting during the World Cup was inconsistent as he failed to score on four occasions, in itself being a record.
Gaining attention On 4 April 2008, de Villiers became the first South African to score a
double century against
India with his top score of 217. De Villiers scored an obdurate 174 that helped set up a ten-wicket win for South Africa in the second Test against England at
Headingley Carnegie in Leeds in July 2008. This was followed by a 97 at
The Oval before he came down the wicket trying to smash
Monty Panesar for a boundary and was caught on the fence. In the first Test in Perth, de Villiers scored a match-winning century to help South Africa chase down the second-highest-ever fourth innings target of 414 with six wickets in hand. This was South Africa's first Test victory in Australia in 15 years and appeared to go a long way towards tilting world cricket's balance of power after over a decade of Australian dominance. De Villiers also took four diving catches in the course of the match, including one to dismiss
Jason Krejza, a stunner at backward point. De Villiers only scored 11 runs in the second Test at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground and made another low score in the first innings of the final Test at the
Sydney Cricket Ground. In the second innings of that Test though, de Villiers scored a patient half-century as South Africa almost held on for an against-the-odds draw. During ODI series, in the 4th ODI in Adelaide, he played as wicket-keeper after Boucher was ruled out. He then scored 82 not out from 85 balls with 6 fours and a six to win the series and was named the man of the match. In the first Test of the return series at the
Wanderers Stadium, de Villiers provided lone resistance in the first innings against a bowling attack led by pace bowler,
Mitchell Johnson, scoring 104* off 185 balls with 9 fours and 1 six, while his teammates all fell for under 50. But in the second innings he made only 3 off 7. In the third Test, after centuries from
Ashwell Prince and Jacques Kallis, de Villiers was the third centurion of the innings with a score of 163 off 196 balls with 12 fours and 7 sixes. This knock also tied the record for most sixes in an over as de Villiers, off the bowling of McDonald, hit four consecutive sixes. In the following 5-game ODI series, de Villiers played consistently, although starting badly in the first game, scoring only 2 runs. However, he went on to make 36*, 80, 84 and 38 and was named Player of the Series at the conclusion of game 5. He was rested for the two-match Twenty20 series against
Zimbabwe and because
Mark Boucher was injured as well
Heino Kuhn donned the keeping gloves. De Villiers returned for the ODI series and also took over the gloves while Boucher was recovering. He did well against Zimbabwe scoring two centuries out of the three ODIs as South Africa comfortably won the three match series 3–0. His major challenge came against Pakistan for the two Twenty20 matches, where he kept wicket. In the first match, he was out for a second-ball duck off a superb delivery by
Shoaib Akhtar. In the second T20I he scored 11 runs. He then participated in the five-match ODI series where South Africa were chasing 203 to win and he scored 51 before he was caught and bowled by Saeed Ajmal. In the second ODI he scored 29 as he was bowled by
Shahid Afridi; in the same match, a flamboyant
Abdul Razzaq played the greatest innings of his life to lift Pakistan to an unbelievable victory. During the third match, he scored 19 before he was stumped by
Zulqarnain Haider. It turned out to be a mistake by the umpire as he had pressed the wrong button. In the fourth match, he missed out on a half-century while on 49 when he gave his wicket to the fielder at point. His good form in the series continued when he scored 61 in the final ODI as South Africa won by 57 runs and the series 3–2. For his performances in 2009 and 2010, he was named in the
World Test XI by the ICC, and was also named in the World ODI XI in 2010.
2011 Cricket World Cup AB de Villiers scored two successive centuries in the
2011 World Cup. He became the first South African to score two centuries in a single World Cup and the fifth batsman after
Mark Waugh,
Saeed Anwar,
Rahul Dravid and
Matthew Hayden to score two consecutive centuries in a single World Cup tournament. He also became the 16th batsman to score two or more centuries in one World Cup tournament. His strike rate of 136.73 is the highest among South African batsmen who have
scored centuries in World Cup matches. With his third player of the match award in World Cups, de Villiers is joint second with Jacques Kallis on the list of South African players with most match awards in World Cups.
Lance Klusener heads the list with five awards.
Rising through the ranks On 6 June 2011, then South Africa coach
Gary Kirsten announced that de Villiers would be South Africa's new limited-overs captain. "I'm very excited but I'm also inexperienced. But I've learnt a lot the last seven years from an unbelievable captain," said de Villiers, who had never captained a team at first-class level. "It's a big responsibility, but there'll be a fresh look in the team, which is good." In the 2011–12 South African summer, de Villiers featured in the
home series against Australia and
against Sri Lanka. In the latter, he scored a century (160 not out) in South Africa's win in the third and deciding Test of the series. He was named the Player of the Series, having scored 353 runs at an
average of 117.66. He then led South Africa for his first series since being appointed captain of the
One Day International team. In his first match as captain, South Africa inflicted the heaviest defeat in Sri Lanka's history, with a 258-run win in
Paarl on 11 January 2012. It was also the largest margin of victory (by runs) in an ODI match between two Test-playing teams. South Africa went on to win the ODI series, and de Villiers was named player of the series, having scored 329 runs at an average of 109.66, including a century (125 not out) in the fifth and final match in
Johannesburg. On 10 July, de Villiers was handed full-time wicket-keeping duties after Mark Boucher announced retirement from cricket after suffering eye injuries from a hit from a bail the day before. On 4 February 2013, de Villiers equaled Jack Russell's record of 11 dismissals in a match. He also scored an unbeaten 103 off 117 balls in South Africa's second innings of the same match. In the process, he became the first wicket-keeper to score a century and claim 10 dismissals in a Test. On 18 March, during the third ODI match of Pakistan's tour of South Africa at Johannesburg, de Villiers and
Hashim Amla shared the record for the highest third-wicket partnership in an ODI when they scored 238. De Villiers scored 12 fours and 3 sixes, and a total of 128.
Record breaking year On 18 January 2015, de Villiers scored both the fastest fifty and the fastest century by a batsman in One Day International cricket, off 16 balls and 31 balls respectively and eventually scoring 149 runs off 44 balls in 59.5 minutes against West Indies.
2015 World Cup De Villiers was one of the top performers at the
2015 Cricket World Cup scoring 482 runs at an average of 96.0 and strike rate of 144.0 during the tournament. On 27 February 2015, he scored 162 runs off 66 balls in a match against the West Indies in Pool B, leading South Africa to their second-highest total in World Cup history (408), at Sydney Cricket Ground. With this feat, he became the record holder for the fastest 50, 100 and 150 in ODI history. Under his captaincy, South Africa qualified for the semi-finals of the World Cup but lost to New Zealand in the match. De Villiers finished the tournament as the third-highest run-scorer with 482 runs, behind
Martin Guptill and
Kumar Sangakkara. At the end of the tournament, he was ranked number 1 in the ICC batsmen rating in One day International cricket and number 3 in the ICC batsmen rating in Test cricket. He was named in the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2015 World Cup by the ICC.
2016–2018 and retirement On 6 January 2016, the second Test match between
England and South Africa ended in a draw. After the end of the match, Hashim Amla resigned from the captaincy and de Villiers was chosen to captain South Africa for the last two matches. On 21 February 2016, de Villiers scored the fastest T20I fifty by a South African, in just 21 balls. He completed the innings with 79 runs in 29 balls and led South Africa to a clean sweep in the T20I series. On 18 January 2017, de Villiers ruled himself out from most of the Test matches and ultimately played in December 2017. However, a day before the Test match,
Faf du Plessis picked up a viral infection, putting him in doubt for the match. On the morning of the Test, he was ruled out of the fixture, with AB de Villiers replacing him as captain. He also
kept wicket during the match, as South Africa's wicket-keeper
Quinton de Kock suffered a hamstring injury while batting on day one. He took eight catches in the match and the Test match finished inside two days, with South Africa winning by an innings and 120 runs. De Villiers returned for the
Indian tour to South Africa in 2018. He stated he had given up wicket-keeping as his back could no longer handle the demand, and Faf du Plessis resumed his role as captain in all forms of the game. In the second Test match
against Australia, he scored his 22nd Test century with a score of 126
not out off 146 balls in the first innings. His performance helped the team win the match by 6 wickets. On 23 May 2018, de Villiers announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket through a video uploaded to Twitter, in which he explained his decision. One of the statements in his monologue was "I have had my turn, and to be honest, I am tired." A few weeks after his announcement about retiring from international cricket, he clarified and said that he will continue playing T20 leagues for a few more years. During the
2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, and following South Africa losing their first three matches in the tournament, details emerged of de Villiers making himself available for selection for the national team squad on the day the squad was to be announced. He was not selected as he had not played any international cricket for his country leading up to the tournament, despite having been prompted to do so by South Africa's coach
Ottis Gibson earlier in the year. In January 2020, it was rumoured that de Villiers was in talks to make a comeback to the South African T20I team for the
2020 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. De Villiers, as well as South African director of cricket
Graeme Smith and head coach
Mark Boucher, confirmed these rumours. In November 2020, de Villiers was nominated for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, and the award for ODI cricketer of the decade.
International centuries De Villiers has scored 22 Test and 25 ODI centuries. He scored his first Test century against England in 2005 and his first ODI century against West Indies in 2007. He also holds the world record for the fastest 100 and 150 in One-Day Internationals. ==Domestic and franchise career==