5 reasons why Virat Kohli & AB de Villiers are the Cristiano Ronaldo & Lionel Messi of the cricketing world

4) Transformation of the players

These four prodigies on to become one of the greats of Football and Cricket

All these players made their debuts at a very young age and over the years, they transformed to become greats of the game. Now they carry their teams on their own shoulders and set examples for others with their inspirational performances.

Kohli rose to fame in 2008 when he led the Indian Under-19 squad to the World Cup. He made his debut for the senior team a year later and never looked back from that. At the beginning, the young man was overshadowed by superstars like Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag who were the prominent members of the Indian squad then.

Kohli was even was part of the squad which lifted the World Cup after 28 years in 2011, but his leap to greatness started a year later as he started to win matches for India. The batsman showed great maturity to become one of the key members of the squad.

Ronaldo too started at a young age and was part of the Portugal squad which lost the Euro final to Greece in 2004. He showed promise in his initial years and the he started blossoming into a great player from the year 2006.

The current Real Madrid star single-handedly took Manchester United to unprecedented heights and he continued that trend for Real Madrid too. He inspired his national side to the Euro semis in 2012 and he was instrumental in helping them qualify for the World Cup in 2014.

Messi made his debut for Barcelona and Argentina in 2004 and 2005 respectively and he showed glimpses of his class in his early years. He kept improving season after season and soon became the leader and the best player in the squad with his exceptional performances. His form with the national team improved as well as he scored some crucial goals for Argentina.

AB too started his career at the age of 20 and went on to make rapid strides in international cricket. He soon became the star player for South Africa and is now captain of the team.

The transformation from being talented youngsters to phenomenal legends has been utterly smooth for the quartet.