“De Villiers is my role mode, but don’t want to copy others…”: MI batter Dewald Brevis

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], March 27 (ANI): Ahead of his side’s upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Hyderabad, Mumbai Indians (MI) batter Dewald Brevis said that his compatriot and legendary batter AB de Villiers is someone wit who he shares a special friendship, but he does not want to copy others and aims to break records that he should break.

SRH and MI will be taking on each other in their IPL 2024 clash in Hyderabad. Both teams started off with narrow losses of four runs and six runs to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Gujarat Titans (GT), respectively, in their campaign openers.

Brevis, who scored a solid 46 in the campaign opener, came to the limelight in ICC U19 World Cup 2022, becoming the leading run-scorer with 506 runs in six matches at an average of 84.33, with two centuries and three fifties. He was compared with De Villiers because of his shot-making and bat swing and earned the nickname ‘Baby AB’ during the tournament.

However, Brevis aims to create an identity of his own. Ahead of the match, he was quoted as saying by MI’s official website, “AB de Villiers is and still is my role model. I learned a lot from him, and we have a special friendship. But I want to achieve what lies ahead by myself and not copy others. I want to be true to myself and break all the records that Dewald Brevis should break.”

Despite his team’s loss to GT, Brevis impressed many with his stroke-filled 46 in 38 balls, with two fours and three sixes, sharing the crease with Indian batting legend and five-time IPL winning skipper Rohit Sharma in a 77-run partnership.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to play). It is always nice to get runs, but unfortunately, we could not get the win. The team is looking great, and I am excited about everything ahead for us,” he said.

Since joining the team in 2022, the 20-year-old has featured for MI in eight matches, scoring 207 runs at an average of 25.88 and a strike rate of over 137, with the best score of 49.

Brevis also opened up about his friendship with Indian batter Tilak Varma, who treated his teammates to some traditional Hyderabadi food of his hometown, including Hyderabadi biryani. The SA batter said that his friendship with Tilak grows “day by day.”.

“It (the friendship) is growing day by day. It has been a very special friendship since the day we met. Whenever he is in South Africa, we always spend time together, and it is great to see him here and spend time with him here as well.” Brevis said.

“Tilak set up a dinner for everyone, and it was amazing. We are here in his hometown, so he just welcomed us. It feels great, and he is a fantastic person who loves and cares for everyone,” he added.

On the team’s loss despite being in a commanding position against GT and bouncing back from that loss, Brevis said that such things happen in cricket and they are uncontrollable.

“We were in a great position and should have won the match, but we do not know what lies ahead, so we can only remain positive. I have a lot of faith in this team and am excited about everything that lies ahead,” he concluded.

Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad: Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Marco Jansen, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, T Natarajan, Travis Head, Glenn Phillips, Washington Sundar, Jaydev Unadkat, Anmolpreet Singh, Upendra Yadav, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Umran Malik, Jhatavedh Subramanyan, Sanvir Singh, Akash Maharaj Singh, Nitish Reddy

Mumbai Indians Squad: Ishan Kishan(w), Rohit Sharma, Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma, Tim David, Hardik Pandya(c), Shams Mulani, Gerald Coetzee, Piyush Chawla, Jasprit Bumrah, Luke Wood, Naman Dhir, Romario Shepherd, Mohammad Nabi, Shreyas Gopal, Vishnu Vinod, Arjun Tendulkar, Nehal Wadhera, Kumar Kartikeya, Shivalik Sharma, Anshul Kamboj, Akash Madhwal, Nuwan Thushara, Kwena Maphakab.