Cricket / Hurts my heart: Virat Kohli as AB de Villiers retires from all forms of cricket

Cricket Desk: Virat Kohli on Friday shared a heartfelt message for his long-time Royal Challengers Bangalore teammate AB de Villiers after the former South Africa captain announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. Shortly after de Villiers announced to the world that he was done playing cricket, his RCB captain for years, Kohli took to Twitter to pay tribute to his 'brother' ABD.

"To the best player of our times and the most inspirational person I've met, you can be very proud of what you've done and what you've given to RCB my brother. Our bond is beyond the game and will always be," Kohli tweeted.

"This hurts my heart but I know you've made the best decision for yourself and your family like you've always done. I love you." Replying to Kohli's tweet, de Villiers said: 'Love u too my brother'.

Kohli then put up another gracious post on de Villiers, this time on Instagram, captioning a picture of him and ABD: “You've given everything to RCB and I know that in my heart. What you mean to this franchise and to me cannot be put into words. The Chinnaswamy Stadium will miss cheering for you and I'm going to miss playing alongside you my brother. I love you and I'll always be your number 1 fan.”

Kohli and AB de Villiers and the numerous match-winning partnerships they have shared for RCB will go down in RCB's folklore. Together, Kohli and de Villiers share the record for the two highest partnerships recorded in IPL. The two superstars of RCB put on 229 runs for the second wicket against the now-defunct Gujarat Lions in 2016, and a year earlier, had stitched an unbeaten 215-run stand against Mumbai Indians.

Last year, during IPL 2020, Kohli and de Villiers achieved a record milestone for RCB batting together. In the game against Kolkata Knight Riders, Kohli and de Villiers registered a century partnership, which was their 10th in the IPL and the most by any player in the history of the tournament.

The Kohli-de Villiers duo is the only pair in IPL history who have scored over 3000 runs in partnerships. With 5162 runs, de Villiers is currently the second-highest run-scorer in IPL history for an overseas cricketer, behind Australia's David Warner.