5. AB De Villiers, South Africa
It is rather impossible to even comprehend a list of the best batsman today and not include De Villiers, unless of course you are looking for batsman, who don’t hold gloves, have not captained their country, bat lower than No 7 or simply don’t like Tandoori Roti, then maybe, just maybe you have a chance of skipping him. South Africa played 7 tests this year, a reflection of the skewed distribution of matches that takes place with the Big Three playing each other. But even in those few games, De Villiers maintained his average of 50 plus. The series against India also established that he is up to the mark against both the spinners, and spinners with a bowl of dust. De Villiers is at number 5 and the only thing that has kept him this low is the fact that he scored lesser runs in comparison to other players, especially those above him on the list because of fewer matches.
