It has been decided to retire the jersey numbers of AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle. Both the legends of cricket have been inducted into the IPL Hall of Fame on 26 March. RCB confirmed the retirement of jersey numbers on their official Twitter handle
RCB tweeted Will retire jersey numbers 17 and 333 forever when we induct RCB legends into the Hall of Fame. AB de Villiers (17) and Henry Gayle (333) will be honored by us.
It may be noted that jersey number 17 was synonymous with De Villiers, who played 11 seasons (2011-2021) for RCB. Apart from this, scored 4,491 runs in 156 matches for the franchise. The charismatic South African cricketer also hit 37 fifties and 2 hundreds for RCB in 2015 with a high score of 133 not out.
AB de Villiers: De Villiers who announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in November 2021, had a strike rate of 152 for RCB. Along with Virat Kohli, de Villiers shared five 100-plus partnerships and two 200-plus partnerships for RCB. The only pair in the world to have two such partnerships.
Whereas West Indian hard-hitter Gayle played for RCB in seven seasons (2011-2017) and his jersey number 333 used to strike fear in the opposition teams. During the 2013 IPL season, the Jamaican played a blistering knock of 708 runs in 16 matches for RCB, including an unbeaten 175.
Gayle started his IPL career with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2009 before moving to RCB, where he had the longest stint with the IPL franchise. He was bought by the Punjab Kings in 2018, where he played for four seasons.
