Kohli and de Villiers have developed quite the bond since the latter’s move to the RCB franchise in 2011. The two have won many matches together, but have also grown to spend quality time off the field, discussing life beyond cricket, and de Villiers offered a glimpse of what that friendship is like.“He’s much deeper than just a cricket player […] I think most people realise after a while that there’s more to life than just cricket,” de Villiers said. “I think we all fall into that bubble initially. But Virat’s always been a thinker, he experiments [with] a lot of things, he loves trying new things out – gym wise, what he puts in his mouth. He thinks a lot about life after life – what’s to come, the different religions, we talk about everything.“We go pretty deep and his missus as well, Anushka, we have very deep conversations, which is fantastic. We talk about children and family. We’re waiting for that first little Kohli to come. It’s a good friendship and we always find a way to talk about cricket as well, but 90% of the time we talk about other stuff. It’s refreshing and in the middle of a very intense IPL tournament.”From his South African circles, where de Villiers has known some of his national team mates since his school days, de Villiers said: “I’ve stayed in touch with Morne Morkel, Faf [du Plessis] and Dale [Steyn]. Dale and I have come a long way together as well, I mean we’ve known each other since we were school kids and in primary school. JP [Duminy] as well.“There’s no real best friend when it comes to cricket, you just hang out a bit more with one or two.”
