http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gary-Kirsten-c58527 first offered him captaincy role during IPL
The newly appointed limited overs skipper of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AB-de-Villiers-c887 on Thursday revealed that he was quite dumbstruck when Gary Kirsten first came up to discuss the issue of taking on captaincy role of Proteas.
"He (Kirsten) put the plans on the table and asked whether I would be prepared to do it. Of course one could not say no to something like that," said de Villiers while talking to the media reporters at the sidelines of Cricket South
Africa's awards function.
"I was a little dumbstruck because he is one of my heroes and it was great to see him," he added further.
Reminiscing his encounter with the newly appointed South Africa coach Kirsten, de Villiers said that he was in Bangalore playing in the recently concluded season 4 of lucrative Indian Premier League when he was first approached for
captaincy role.
The 27-year-old wicketkeeper batsman, who has had a successful IPL stint with tournament runner-ups Royal Challengers Bangalore, said that the offer came as surprise to him as he was expecting Kirsten to discuss his batting.
"He phoned me and said he would like to share his thoughts with me,” de Villiers told the reporters while giving the details of his discussion with the Kirsten.
“I initially thought he would only be discussing batting with me, he's helped me before with that. I definitely did not expect it. [But] I can't wait for the challenge," he added.
AB de Villiers made his international debut in December 2004 and has so far played 66 Tests and 119 One Day Internationals scoring 4741and 4523 runs respectively.
It has been reported that de Villiers, who started his Test career as wicketkeeper and keeps wickets in the shorter formats of the game in the absence of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MV-Boucher-c2048, might be relieved of his role with the gloves so that he could
focus on leading the team and on his batting.
When asked about his captaincy plans, De Villiers said that he, along with the coach, will make plans to ensure that he does not carry too much on his shoulders. He further added that he wants to lead by example and for that will
work on his batting in the off-season to make sure it is up to scratch.
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