Batting star friends Kohli, De Villiers face off

ViratKohli’s rivalry with fellow batting star AB de Villiers is likely toprovide a compelling side-show in the three-Test series between SouthAfrica and India starting at Newlands on Friday.“It’s not like onlytwo guys are playing in this series,” said Kohli, playing things downwhen asked about De Villiers, his Royal Challengers Bangalore teammatein the Indian Premier League.“AB is a great friend of mine, Irespect the way he plays the game and I’ve always respected him as aperson as well,” Kohli said at India’s arrival press conference. “Butwhen you’re playing against each other it’s just about wanting to get ABout and I’m sure the opposition would want the same when I play or(Ajinkya) Rahane plays or (Cheteshwar) Pujara plays as well.”WhileRahane and Pujara may be high-quality players — in the same way thatDean Elgar and Hashim Amla are for South Africa — no player on eitherside can match the aura created by Kohli and De Villiers, whosethrilling stroke play can change the course of a match.Kohli isIndia’s most glamorous and best-performing batsman since SachinTendulkar while De Villiers has the rare distinction for a foreigner ofhaving star appeal in India.When South Africa toured India twoseasons ago, crowds put aside their passionate support for the home sideand chanted “ABD, ABD” whenever De Villiers walked out to bat.Itcould even be argued that De Villiers contributed to South Africa’sdownfall in the Test matches which followed a one-day series dominatedby his dazzling batting.De Villiers slammed three centuries in fivematches, leading South Africa to a series victory which had RaviShastri, India’s team director (now coach), grumbling about conditionswhich suited the visitors. It seemed no coincidence that the fourTest matches were played on spin-friendly dust bowls and were dominatedby Indian spin bowlers Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.Itbrought De Villiers down to earth, although he was still South Africa’sbest batsman, scoring 258 runs at an average of 36.85. Even Kohlistruggled in the conditions, restricted to 200 runs at 33.33.Kohlihas only played in two other Tests against South Africa, when Indiatoured in 2013/14, but showed his ability to handle the pace and bounceof South African pitches by making 119 and 96 in the first Test inJohannesburg.De Villiers has played 17 Tests against India and hisaverage of 40.10 against them is modest compared to his career averageof 50.47. But he has enjoyed some big successes — 217 not out in aninnings win in Ahmedabad in 2007-08 and South Africa’s fastest Testcentury, off 75 balls, in Centurion in 2010/11.Kohli is coming off aspectacular 2017, during which he hit three double centuries incompiling 1059 Test runs at an average of 75.64, while because of injuryfollowed by a break from Test cricket De Villiers has only played inone Test — scoring 53 in the two-day rout of Zimbabwe — since January2016.De Villiers professed his excitement about being back on thebig stage. Kohli, in speaking of the hunger in the Indian team, notedthat he couldn’t speak for the opposition and that “AB hasn’t playedmuch Test cricket since he played against us, and he’s coming back aftera while.”What seems certain when the world’s two top-ranked Testteams square up is that there will be extra excitement and anticipationevery time Kohli and De Villiers walk out to bat.