AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle’s jersey numbers to be retired by RCB

IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have decided to retire the jersey numbers donned by AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle. The batting greats are to be inducted into RCB’s Hall of Fame on 26 March. de Villiers made the No 17 jersey popular while playing for RCB and played for 11 seasons at the franchise from 2011 to 2021. Gayle played for RCB from 2011 to 2017 for seven years and made jersey No 333 extremely popular.

“Jersey numbers 17 and 333 will be retired forever as a tribute to @ABdeVilliers17 and @henrygayle, when we induct the legends of RCB into the Hall of Fame,” RCB tweeted.

de Villiers scored 4,491 runs in 156 matches for RCB at a strike rate of 152, scoring 37 half-centuries and two hundreds. He registered a highest score of 133 not out in 2015.

With Virat Kohli, de Villiers posted five 100-plus partnerships for RCB and two 200-plus stands, the only pair in the world to post two such partnerships.

West Indian hard hitter Gayle scored 3163 runs while playing for RCB. He hit five centuries for them.

During the 2013 IPL season, the Jamaican smashed a mindboggling 708 runs in 16 matches for RCB, including an unbeaten 175.

Gayle began his stint with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2009, before moving to RCB, where he served the longest stint with an IPL franchise. He was bought by Punjab Kings in 2018, where he played four seasons.

With PTI inputs

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