One of contemporary cricket's greatest batters, De Villiers had retired from all forms of game in November last year, putting an end to his glorious 17-year career in top-flight.
On Friday, South African cricketer, AB de Villiers announced his retirement from all forms of the game. His sudden retirement has left several fans heartbroken including Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma and her husband, cricketer Virat Kohli who took to social media and penned heartfelt notes.
Tributes poured in for AB de Villiers after the South African batter on Friday announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.
De Villiers hasn't played international cricket since 2018 but has been playing domestic and franchise cricket throughout the globe.
Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has attributed his return to form to IPL teammates Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, saying he has reaped rich dividends by spending time with the duo during his stint with Royal Challengers Bangalore in UAE.
The Afghan spinner also picked retired South African legend A B de Villiers, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and West Indian swashbuckler Kieron Pollard among his favourites.
Five of his previous golden ducks in his T20 franchise cricket happened in IPL, the last in 2015. His last golden duck in T20 cricket however happened in 2016, during an international match against Australia in Durban.
The intra-squad practice match turned into an edge-of-the-seat thriller with fantastic performances from both teams, RCB-A and RCB-B, led by Harshal Patel and Devdutt Padikkal respectively.
As India continued to persist with the four seamers and a specialist spinner strategy for the fourth Test against England, skipper Virat Kohli had been subjected to sharp criticism by fans for backing Ravindra Jadeja and not selecting Ashwin in the playing XI.
De Villiers will now have to undergo a quarantine of six days before hitting the ground for training sessions.
Boucher added that South Africa will have to respect de Villiers's decision and move forward.
CSA said that "discussions with AB de Villiers have concluded with the batsman deciding once and for all, that his retirement will remain final."
The 29 completed matches at the halfway stage of the tournament provided ample breathtaking performances to select the best XI from the season so far.
The RCB batsman recollected his experience of playing with the franchise's two big stars - Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.
In India TV's post-match show Cricket Dhamaka, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar said that de Villiers' innings was the turning point of the game.
Royal Challengers Bangalore clinched the nail-biter to go to the top of the table once again.
Reaching the feat in his 161st innings, De Villiers surpassed Dhawan (168 innings) to become the third-fastest cricketer to the 5000 IPL runs after Warner (135 innings) and Kohli (157 innings).
De Villiers, 37, said he is going to communicate with South Africa head coach Mark Boucher towards the end of the IPL.
Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers's whirlwind half centuries propelled RCB to 204/4 and KKR scored 166/8 in reply.
RCB have never won an IPL title.
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