Amid reports of Indian dressing room chat leaks a couple of days ago, with terms like ‘Mr. Fix It’ and ‘interim captaincy’ popped-up, de Villiers suggested that these things aren’t new in the sport.
“I know there have been some rumours. I’m not surprised. When there’s smoke, there’s fire. I’ve been part of dressing rooms where it’s been hostile. Especially when you’re away from home, you’re missing your family, and you’re not playing the best cricket of your career,” De Villiers said in a video posted on X.
He claimed he won’t be surprised if the rumours are indeed true.
“The dressing room is crucial, especially away from home. It’s easier at home. I have no doubt that the Indian team dressing room might have lost that a little bit over the last weeks in Australia. When you start losing faith in each other, you might as well sit on the sides and hand over the trophy. I don’t have facts with regards to the Indian dressing room. I’ll wait for facts to see who’s been niggling with who,” he added.
Advice to Kohli:
Considered a close friend to Virat Kohli, de Villiers had a word of advice for star India batter who bat disappointed during the entire Border Gavaskar Trophy and he struggled with deliveries outside off-stump, most notably by pacer Scott Boland.
De Villiers said that Virat needs to “reset his mind” and get rid of on-field battles with individual players while he continues to battle form.
“I think the thing is to reset your mind, every time. I think with Virat, he gets involved with the battle on the field. That is one of his biggest strengths and it can also be a weakness. During this series, we saw him have individual battles with some of the players, the crowd got under his skin. Virat loves the fight, but when you are not in the form of your life, it is best to get rid of those things. As a batter, it is to reset every single and realize every ball is an event and just forget about the bowler,” the former cricketer said.
“I think sometimes Virat forgets about that because of his fighting spirit and the nature of the man wanting to be involved and show the whole of India he is there to fight for them. The skill, experience and greatness of the guy are not an issue. It’s about the refocus after every single ball. Maybe sometimes he gets too involved,” he added.
Recalls his playing days:
Recalling his playing days, de Villiers shared an incident when South Africa were clean swept by Australia both home and away.
“It’s very easy for bad stuff and bad habits to creep into the dressing room. We also had that against Australia in 2006 when we lost 2-0 in Australia and then lost 3-0 in South Africa. We lost five out of six Tests. It wasn’t sunshine and roses in that dressing room, we were squabbling with each other. It’s everything, in my opinion. That’s the kind of stuff I believed in when I captained teams. For me, it was a non-negotiable. The dressing room needed to be truthful, guys were loyal to each other, there was great atmosphere and spirit, and we always respected the guy next to you. If you have that, even if you’re losing, you still have a good dressing room,” the former South Africa captain highlighted.
AB de Villiers, dressing room chat leaks, Border Gavaskar Trophy, Virat Kohli, India vs Australia test Series, India vs Australia, Pat Cummins, Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma
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