What goes through the mind of AB de Villiers while batting

#3 Anything you do, I can do better:

If Virat hits a great cover drive, he would want to hit an even better one the next over

Whenever AB bats, by luck or by design, he finds an extremely talented batsman batting with him at the other end. A few names are those of Amla, Faf, JP, de Kock, Virat and Gayle; all supreme stroke-players who bat with him for various teams he plays for. But is there anyone out there who can out-do AB at his art?

No batsman would ever admit it, but when you play with such players around you, there is always an eagerness from within to try and do better than what your batting partner does on the day. To try and match your partner stroke for stroke and to try and outscore him in terms of run-scoring speed as well as effectiveness are things that every batsman aspires to do in his innings.

AB’s mind would be telling him the same. If Virat hits a great cover drive, he would want to hit an even better one the next over. If Gayle hits one out of the ground, he would want to hit a bigger six at the next opportunity. He would want to be the batsman whose innings is remembered at the end of the match rather than any of his batting partners’, and that’s what his mind would be constantly reminding him of.