Leg and Off: Did RCB utilize AB de Villiers' skill the right way?

Former South African captain AB de Villiers was among the very few who transcended the sport by changing the batting paradigm, while also achieving statistical greatness. In an international career spanning a decade and a half, De Villiers scored over 20,000 runs with 47 centuries and numerous other records, including the fastest ODI century off 31 deliveries in 2015.

Yet, his popularity and legacy grew by leaps and bounds to epic proportions when he took the IPL by storm, especially during his tenure with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). After playing for the Delhi Capitals (formerly Delhi Daredevils) in his first three IPL seasons, De Villiers joined RCB and the rest was history.

The champion batter played 11 seasons with RCB (2011 to 2021) and remains the IPL's seventh-leading run-scorer of all-time with 5,162 runs in 184 matches.

Despite the incredible numbers and the fanfare for De Villiers among Bengaluru fans, former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar recently made headlines when he said RCB never maximized the Proteas legend's skills.

"AB, in IPL, he was not used properly. His real ability. So, in IPL we didn’t get that much juice out of him. And, sorry to say, but played for the wrong franchise. If he had played elsewhere, we could have seen the greatness of AB de Villiers," he told Star Sports [as quoted by India Today].

While such a thought may be hard to process and fathom for many, considering De Villiers' innumerable memorable knocks for RCB, it is worth looking back and figuring out whether the franchise utilized the South African great in the right manner.

The oxymoronic numbers to team success

How Virat Kohli and Ab de Villiers never won an IPL title together remains baffling. [Credit: Getty]

AB de Villiers' extraordinary numbers with RCB should have invariably led to at least an elusive IPL title if not many more. Yet, during his 11-year career with the franchise, RCB reached only two finals and missed the playoffs in six out of the 11 seasons.

The swashbuckling batter scored almost 4,500 runs for RCB in 144 innings at an average of 41.20 and a strike rate of 158.64. The more glaring AB de Villiers numbers are from the seasons RCB did not even finish in the top four - 2012 to 2014 and 2017 to 2019.

The now-40-year-old averaged over 35 with a strike rate of over 155 in each of the three seasons from 2012 to 2014 only for RCB to endure two fifth-place and a seventh-place finish. Similarly, averages of 53.33 at a strike rate of 174.55 and 44.20 at 154.01 in 2018 and 2019 only resulted in RCB finishing third from bottom and bottom on the points table.

While a team's performance rarely hinges on one player, especially in T20s, one will be hard-pressed to find too many times in any T20 league where a team has missed the playoffs as often as RCB with the numbers De Villiers placed. Hence, the question of possible under-utilization cannot be dismissed.

How RCB used AB de Villiers in his and the team's best season

Any RCB faithful would close their eyes and pick 2016 as the team and AB de Villiers' best IPL season. The legendary batter scored an incredible 687 runs (his highest in any IPL season) at an average of 52.84 and a strike rate of 168.79 in 16 outings.

A century and six half-centuries - all resulting in RCB victories, was evidence of De Villiers' impact in the 2016 season. While the team did not achieve their ultimate goal of winning the title, they finished second on the points table and were first to qualify for the final.

Interestingly, De Villiers batted at No. 3 in 15 of the 16 matches that season, facing 401 balls overall (his most in a single IPL season). Clearly, he was given more balls to face and the result was largely successful for himself and the side.

Rinse and repeat? Not so fast, say 'RCB'

RCB shockingly went away from a successful ploy with de Villiers to their detriment. [Credit: Getty]

Continuing from the narrative in the previous section of De Villiers batting at No. 3 the entire 2016 season and how that directly impacted team success positively, it is only fair we see how often RCB repeated that since.

Before heading down that path, it is important to note that the Protea legend also batted at one drop in 10 innings in 2015, a season where RCB finished third on the points table and in the playoffs.

Sadly, the franchise parted way too soon from the plan and De Villiers batted at No. 3 only 19 times in 64 matches from 2017 to 2021. This despite him averaging over 44 in each of the three seasons from 2018 to 2020.

Why would RCB go away from a formula that worked so successfully in 2015 and 2016 and reduce De Villiers' arrival and time at the crease? This has to be one of the many million-dollar questions thrown at the franchise as they continue being among the most underachieving sides in the IPL from a trophy perspective.

The glaring mismatch between impact and usage

Even AB de Villiers could only do so much in such little time at the crease. [Credit: Getty]

The massive mismatch between his overall impact numbers to usage is further evidence that RCB used De Villiers more as a rescuer than a preventor. Three years since his retirement, the star batter still has the most Player of the Match awards in IPL history with 25.

Considering that, it is baffling that De Villiers batted at No. 3 or above in only 47 out of 144 innings for RCB. For the record, he averaged 49.22 at a strike rate of 161.38 at No. 3 for the franchise.

While his averages were impressive at No. 4 to 6, it was never above 40 and the strike rate touched a maximum of 168.42 at No. 6 (only 4 innings). Another staggering statistic that predominantly places blame on RCB is De Villiers' position in the run-scoring and balls-faced charts.

While he is the seventh-leading run-scorer in IPL history, he is only 13th all-time in balls faced. For context, the six above him in overall IPL runs are also the same six in the same order in terms of balls faced.

However, in De Villiers' case, his otherworldly average and strike rate of 39.70 and 151.68 meant he was much higher on the run-scoring charts than his utilization suggests. Imagine if RCB batted him at No. 3 more often and availed more balls to him, considering his consistency and domination (evidenced by the average and strike rate at the position).

Well, we needn't imagine as RCB tried that in 2015 and 2016, saw it worked, yet went away from it for reasons little known and hard to comprehend.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is undeniable that RCB used AB de Villiers more like a 'miracle man' lower down the order than their best overall batter. His unparalleled versatility perhaps worked against the team's thinking as they often fit the rest of the batters in positions comfortable to them, knowing De Villiers' ability to succeed anywhere in the batting order.

Yet, in doing that, RCB may have spelled doom on themselves by under-utilizing the most impactful match-winner the IPL has ever seen and left him far too much to do in far too little a time. It is one thing that the franchise took a few seasons to figure out how his batting at No. 3 proved massively successful for himself and the team.

But, to move away from that immediately for his final five seasons despite the results consistently being worse than the ones in 2015 and 2016 validates Manjrekar's remarks.

Final Verdict:

AB de Villiers was undeniably under-utilized and wrongly used by RCB for most of his illustrious stint with the franchise.