AB de Villiers ready to fill big gloves ahead of the World Cup
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AB-de-Villiers-c887, South Africa’s wicketkeeper batsman, is ready to go to this month’s ICC 2011 World Cup to prove his mettle with the gloves.
“I’ll be ready for the World Cup. I can’t wait for the challenge, and I’ve been improving in every game that I’ve played,” De Villiers stated.
De Villiers was long known as a brilliant right-handed batsman but has been recently keeping the wickets in 26 matches of his 114 One Day International (ODI) appearances.
He took over the gloves from South Africa’s regular wicket-keeper Mark Boucher, even though De Villiers was deemed as one of the Proteas’s best outfielders.
His first wicket as a keeper came in a One Day match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 in Trinidad in May-June 2010.
The South African has enjoyed his stint with the gloves and his transition from a batsman to a wicketkeeper has been quite smooth but cricket pundits have been questioning his skills. He has not been as consistent as Boucher and he is yet to perform to his
best against the slew of spinners.
However, De Villiers maintained that he has been working on crafting his skill that would help him stand up to the medium-pacers.
“I’ve been working quite hard on my keeping, and I believe I am going to be one of the best very soon”, he added.
The ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 gets underway from 19 February in the Subcontinent and the spin-friendly wickets are deemed to be his toughest test yet.
Critics and cricket players have termed South Africa’s “secret weapon,” the Pakistani born leg-spinner http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Imran-c64193 Tahir, as a huge challenge for De Villiers. Tahir’s biggest variation from the leg-break to his googly is considerably tricky to handle, according
to the critics.
De Villiers, known as a part-time keeper, stated that he knew he has a difficult task ahead but stressed on the fact that he has been more successful with the bat to be true to his wicketkeeper-batsman combination.
“Jacques (Kallis) can bowl a very quick bouncer, so that won’t work, and I’m definitely not standing up to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Dale-c52110 (Steyn) or Morne (Morkel)”, he stated before adding that he only envisaged standing behind the stumps to Proteas’ left-arm pace-man Lonwabo Tsotsobe.
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