Fear of failure pushes AB de Villiers to focus more

Year after year he turns up with the same child-like vigour and pulls out victories from seemingly hopeless situations for his side. From the outside he looks like a confident, invincible warrior who could do no wrong. But ask RCB maverick AB de Villiers what is the reason behind his success and he says it’s the fear of failure.

"It’s not always very enjoyable. I try and play the situations that I am confronted with in the best possible way, sounds pretty simple. But fact of the matter is that when you bat in the middle order, the situation changes every time."

"It’s a matter of adapting and trying to make most of it...It comes off more often than not," the Proteas legend said in an exclusive interview on RCB’s Bold Diaries.

"But one can't escape the reality that there will be failures. But you always know that it’s possible that you are going to fail. Fear of failure always pushes me to focus more on the ball and do basics better. Try and get a start. It is important to start the first 20 balls well," he said.

De Villiers has been retired from international cricket and one wonders how he is forever ready to excel at the highest level of the game.

"I must say the work to get back to decent form was lot harder than before and the last match I played was in last IPL. It doesn't mean that I didn't put in the hard yards and I started about two months ago. I had 2-3 months off, stayed fit in the gym and I started hitting cricket balls. Enough to get me to space, to get me going," he added.