AB: The Autobiography

Price: ₹799 - ₹516.00
(as of May 12, 2025 22:57:30 UTC – Details)

The Autobiography of One of the World’s Finest Ever Batsman. ‘AB has become the most valuable cricketer on the planet’ Adam Gilchrist AB de Villiers is one of the finest batsmen ever to play cricket, and yet his achievement extends beyond his outrageous armoury of drives, pulls, paddles, scoops and flicks. Whether he is delighting home crowds at the Wanderers or Newlands or setting new records in Bengaluru or Sydney, he plays the game in a whole-hearted manner that projects a positive image of his country around the world, and also makes millions of South Africans feel good about themselves. This is AB’s story, in his own words. The story of the youngest of three talented, sports-mad brothers growing up in Warmbaths, of a boy who excelled at tennis, rugby and cricket, of a youngster who made his international debut at the age of twenty and was then selected in every single test played by South Africa for the next eleven seasons, of a batsman who has started to redefine the art, being ranked among the world’s very best in test, ODI and T20. Through all the pyrotechnics and consistency, AB de Villiers has remained a true sportsman – quick to deflect praise, swift to praise opponents, eager to work hard, to embrace the team’s next challenge and to relish what he still regards as the huge privilege of representing his country. This is the story of a modern sporting phenomenon.

From the Publisher

A Life in Cricket

Batting for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL Champions League, with Mark Boucher keeping wicket for the Eastern Province Warriors.

A celebratory moment captured while batting for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL Champions League.

2015 Cricket World Cup – above, with Hashim Amla, as we make progress through the tournament.

Airborne while fielding at the Wanderers.

AB the Autobiography: Book Excerpt

Batting during the demanding home series against England, when we won the fourth test at Super Sport Park, Centurion and restored some national pride.

The first Test in Mohali ended within three days. India scored 201, we replied with 184, and India scored 200 in their second innings. Set 218 to win, we were dismissed for 109, with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja each taking eight wickets in the match. We had been comprehensively outplayed.

Bengaluru was chosen to host the second Test, which meant my 100th Test match for South Africa would be played in my ‘home town’ in India. Both my parents and Danielle’s parents, and Letitia Greyling, travelled from Pretoria to witness this significant landmark, but they ended up watching more rain than cricket.

Virat Kohli won the toss and sent us in to bat. In all the 246 Tests ever played in India, it was only the twentieth time a captain had chosen to field first. Amid forecasts of bad weather later in the week, his decision gave me a chance to bat on what turned out to be the one and only dry day of the entire Test match.

Ashwin and Jadeja were soon creating problems for us, and I walked out to bat with our score at 45 for three. It was a reasonable cricket wicket and, batting under pressure, it was important for us to be positive and to keep scoring runs. I reached 85 from 105 balls, but was dismissed when wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha leapt forward to catch a ball that glanced off my bat and popped up off my pad. We were all out for 214 and the Indians rushed to 80 for no wicket by stumps on the first day, but that proved to be that. Four days of rain followed, and the Test ended as a damp draw.

I knew we were struggling. We spoke about applying ourselves and about fighting harder, and about finding a way to compete but, for us, the series was, quite literally, spinning out of control.

In the third Test at Nagpur, India batted first and scored 215…

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1509842764
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pan (6 September 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781509842766
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1509842766
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 440 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 3.1 x 15.5 x 23.4 cm
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ India
Net Quantity ‏ : ‎ 480.00 Grams