The Greatest Player of Every Decade

The 2010s:

There was no shot de Villiers couldn't play

AB de Villiers (SA)

The 2010s have been fiercely contested. Australia's dominance in Test cricket has ended, just as the West Indies did before them. But if one team has taken over Australia's mantle, it has been South Africa.

When South Africa started to become a genuine force in the mid-2000s, it was the likes of Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith who led the way. But as their influence waned, AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla and Dale Steyn began to prosper.

Steyn is one of the few bowlers to contend for the best player of the 2010s, as it has seen the batsmen continue to dominate the bowlers, even if not quite to the same extent as in the 2000s.

There are plenty of batters in contention, however. Sangakkara played some of his best innings in this decade, but retired in 2015. Steve Smith has a superb average of 61.37, but also oversaw one of the lowest moments in Australian cricket, and suffers as a result. Virat Kohli has now converted his ODI skills to the Test arena, and by the end of the decade may well be the best.

But AB de Villiers' 5059 runs in this period, his average of 57.48, his freakish fielding, and his ability to make even the best of bowlers look like junior cricketers sees him edge his competition.

It is strange to think that at the start of his Test career de Villiers was something of a frustrating talent. Where Graeme Smith made mountains of runs with a technique that was no more than serviceable, de Villiers could play every shot in the book and then a few more, yet was a precarious talent.

It didn't help that South Africa constantly went back and forth on their decision to give de Villiers the keeping gloves, and that he was frequently hampered by injuries. But by the late 2000s, de Villiers seemed to have his game sorted, and by the 2010s he was among the very best.

de Villiers is likely even better than his record suggests, as South Africa tends to be one of the few countries where conditions favour the bowlers. This is reinforced by de Villiers' home average, which is 47.41, some way off his away average of 55.24.