Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar is often in the news due to his statement. Whenever he talks about a player, he does not miss to praise himself. The latest case is related to Mr 360 AB de Villiers. Akhtar recalled his meeting with the former South African player in the first season of the Indian Premier League and revealed what he had told him at that time.
AB de Villiers is known as a legend of RCB, but he started his IPL career for Delhi Daredevils. He played for the Delhi franchise between 2008 and 2010 before joining RCB in 2011. He played for RCB till 2021
Akhtar was one of the few Pakistani cricketers to play the IPL in 2008 and was a part of the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise. Talking about his meeting with Sportskeeda, he said, “I met him during IPL in 2008. The meeting took place in a private ceremony. I told him that he is a great player and asked him to get ready to captain the South African team. I told him that he would be one of the greatest players of all time. ,
Akhtar also recalled his on-field encounter with the South African legend. He dismissed de Villiers four times in international cricket in 10 innings. Now Akhtar was not tired of boasting. He said that he thought he could have easily dismissed Mr 360 and he got him out whenever the match took place.
Akhtar said, “Luckily whenever I faced him I managed to get him out and at times I also felt that I could get him out easily. Then when he came into the IPL he tried to play the pull shot but I knew he would be late because I had a lot of momentum on my delivery. Exactly the same thing happened. He said on Twitter that he still has nightmares. I was sad and angry when he announced his retirement.”
This is not the first time that Shoaib himself has praised himself. With this, he had said the same thing about the match with Virat Kohli. Akhtar had claimed that if he had played against former Indian captain Virat Kohli, he would not have scored that many runs in his career. Both Kohli and Akhtar played against each other only once during the 2010 Asia Cup. However, Kohli did not get a chance to face Rawalpindi Express in that match. Akhtar had said that he would have given Kohli the best performance. He could not score 50 centuries. He would have scored 20 to 25 centuries at most, but it would have been very good.