Mitchell Johnson hails AB de Villiers as the best he has ever bowled to

Former Australian pace bowler Mitchell Johnson, who retired from international cricket late last year, reportedly feels that AB de Villiers is the best batsman he has bowled to. de Villiers has been in sensational form in the ongoing IPL and has scored close to 600 runs already. Johnson, meanwhile, is part of the Kings XI Punjab squad for the tournament; however, he has not had much of a role to play with just 3 matches under his belt. The left-armer is the fourth on the list of Australia’s most successful bowlers with 313 wickets from 73 matches.

In his 10-year long career, Johnson found the South African to be the batsman who stood out from the rest. “AB de Villiers was the guy who really stood out for me. AB was a guy that was above everyone else for a long period; just how calm he was, he had all the shots,” said the Aussie speedster while speaking to cricket.com.au.

Although Mitchell Johnson was at his destructive best against the Proteas, de Villiers withstood his threat to average a formidable 66 against him in Tests. The pacer, on the other hand, managed to get rid of the master batsman 4 times in as many as 21 innings.

Johnson also holds the highest regard for Virat Kohli as a batsman. The 34-year old said, “Virat was always competitive. You always had that challenge coming up against him, that you could have a bit of a go at him and he'd lose it for a couple of balls but then he'd get back on target. He played exceptionally well against us in Australia (during the 2014-15 summer).”

About his team-mate Steve Smith, the Australian opined, “Smithy (Steve Smith) was always hard work in the nets. I never really got to play against him, maybe one or two games. At the WACA bowling against him he played really well.”

He also spoke about Joe Root and Kane Williamson. “Root was definitely a challenge, and Williamson, I didn't get to see enough of him, but what I did see at the end of my career, he was on his game and really hard to bowl to. He didn't really nick the ball and if he did he had good hands and it always dropped short,” said Johnson.

Mitchell Johnson did shower praise on Kohli, Root, Williamson and Smith but also empasised on how good batting pitches are aiding them. “They do have all the shots and they take them into Test cricket. That's great because it means the game flows along, there's always something going on. Those guys are all definitely tough to bowl to. But look, I'll say it - they're generally playing in very good batting conditions,” he concluded.