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Cricket PlayersVirat Kohli's heart-touching reply after AB de Villiers' teary-eyed RCB post sends social media into a meltdown
RCB inducted the ex-South Africa all-rounder, and Chris Gayle in the RCB Hall of Fame, also retiring their jerseys De Villiers (17) and Gayle (333) forever from its roster.
AB de Villiers is a fan favorite in India, especially in the southern city of Bengaluru, where he spent over a decade representing Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). Although RCB never won a Indian Premier League (IPL) title in that period but De Villiers did deliver some scintillating show and went to amass 4491 runs, which include two hundreds.
Honoring his services, RCB inducted the ex-South Africa all-rounder, and Chris Gayle in the RCB Hall of Fame, also retiring their jerseys De Villiers (17) and Gayle (333) forever from its roster.
While Gayle left RCB in 2018, De Villiers continued to render his service for three more years before announcing retirement from the sport.
De Villiers on Tuesday dedicated an Instagram post to RCB, where he wrote a lengthy caption describing his emotions associated with the franchise.
"So March 26th 2023 Chris and I were inducted into the RCB hall of fame and our jersey numbers retired forever. My heart blossomed as my wife, two boys and little girl walked up the stairs to enter our RCB den, stairs that I have walked up so many times with butterflies fluttering in my stomach. It felt weird to walk up there in a different state of mind.
“Tears filled my eyes when I stepped on to the balcony of our dressing room at the Chinnaswamy in front of a packed stadium. I never thought hearing the chants of ABD could beat the first time, but this time was different. It used to be adrenalin combined with an extreme hunger to please the cry out of our fans to find a way to win, this time it was a sea of emotion that filled my body as I simply felt grateful to have had my time in the arena representing a proud city, an amazing franchise and incredible teammates,” he wrote.
De Villiers then thanked his teammates and gave a special mention to former RCB skipper Virat Kohli. “Thank you teammates, especially Virat, thank you RCB, thank you Bengaluru,” he wrote.
Kohli, his wife and Bollywood star Anushka Sharma, RCB team director Mike Hesson also reacted to the post. While Hesson called De Villliers a “GOAT”, while Kohli and Anushka dropped heart emoticons.
