South Africa great AB de Villiers has backed his former Royal Challengers Bengaluru teammate Virat Kohli to be at his usual best in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League, starting in Chennai on Friday. The 35-year-old Kohli has not played competitive cricket in almost two months after opting out of the recently-concluded Test series against England at home, which India won 4-1 because of the birth of son, Akaay. De Villiers termed Kohli’s IPL career as “incredible” after the star India batter holds the highest run-scorer feat in the event, amassing 7,263 runs in 200 matches.

“Stalwart, King Kohli, over 7000 runs, over 200 IPL matches — but that’s simply incredible. That’s like a career in itself.

“Virat will be back. We’ve missed him dearly and absolutely cannot wait to watch the best of him this coming season,” de Villiers said on his YouTube channel.

De Villiers also backed fellow South African and current Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Faf du Plessis to deliver this season.

He is aware of Du Plessis recent dip in form, which gained a late momentum during the SA20 this year with Joburg Super Kings, but de Villiers preferred to look at the positive side of things.

“He has had a little bit of a dip in form of late, but towards the back end of the SA20, he started finding his feet again, which boasts well for RCB this season,” he said.

De Villiers also had words of praise for RCB’s bowling attack ahead of the upcoming season.

The current RCB bowling line-up boasts of the likes of Lockie Ferguson, Reece Topley, Mohammed Siraj, Alzarri Joseph and Karn Sharma.

Also Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Dayal, Mayank Dagar and Himanshu Sharma are some of the uncapped talents who will be eyeing to draw attention.

Among the all-rounders, Glenn Maxwell, Suyash Prabhudessai, Cameron Green and Mahipal Lomror are the ones to look out for.

Praising RCB’s bowling depth, de Villiers noted, “The bowling department, led by Mohammed Siraj, plays a huge role in that bowling department,” de Villiers said.

“I think there’s very nice depth this time around, and I think that’s one of the big reasons I feel RCB is going to go all the way this year.” RCB play their IPL 2024 opener against defending champions Chennai Super Kings here on Friday.

“Expecting fireworks from Yashasvi Jaiswal”

Talking about the players to watch out for in IPL 2024, de Villiers rated young Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top of his watch list.

The 22-year-old, currently playing for Rajasthan Royals, has been on dream form since making his international debut last year, having already surpassed more than 1,500 runs in Tests and T20Is combined.

Jaiswal had a flamboyant last season in the IPL, amassing over 600 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of 163.61, including a ton and five half-centuries, and finished as the team’s highest run-scorer.

“There’s one guy that I absolutely cannot wait to watch. That’s Jaiswal. He showed in the Test format what he’s capable of. Now, it’s time for him in T20 cricket to show his talent,” de Villiers said.

“With the amount of confidence he took from that Test series, to take that into this IPL, I’m expecting fireworks from this guy. I’m expecting at least a 500-plus season, maybe even 600-plus,” concluded de Villiers.