Former South African batter AB de Villiers found similarities with England legend James Anderson registering for the IPL 2025 auction to MS Dhoni’s retention as an uncapped player for only ₹4 crore as well. However, Anderson retired from international cricket earlier this year, finishing the career as Test cricket’s third-leading wicket-taker with 704 wickets as well. Meanwhile, he made headlines by throwing his
name in the IPL auction list for the first time at a base price of ₹1.25 crore.

Reacting to Anderson’s inclusion in the IPL auction list, AB de Villiers said on his YouTube channel: “It almost gives me a same kind of feeling with MS Dhoni that he decided to take a pay cut. Yes Jimmy, ₹1.25 crores as a base price, which is not a lot for the status as this guy has got. Maybe he will go for only 1.25 and still be prepared to go to India, leave his family for almost three months and maybe not even play a game and share a dressing room with some of the young Indian fast bowlers.”

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“I think it’s fantastic and I was one of the franchise owners and I could get Jimmy for INR 2-3 crores. I would take him purely because I believe that there’s a lot of experience that can be shared with some of the young players, and just his aura and the dressing room will keep the bowling unit confident. This guy knows his game inside out,” he further added.

However, AB de Villiers also expressed confidence in James Anderson by referring him as a potential match-winner even at age 42 as well.
Anderson has also played only 44 overall T20 games in his over-two-decadelong career, picking up 41 wickets which came at an average of over 32 and an economy of almost 8.50 as well.

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“He is 42 years old and might not be able to execute as well on the park anymore, but he still knows exactly what’s required to win games of cricket with the ball in hand. What I think is I hope someone picks him up purely from an experienced point of view almost having like a bowling captain in the change room where he players a lot of games or not, it doesn’t really matter,” De Villiers said in the same video.
“It’s fantastic that this guy is keen to go over to India for a few months of the year and share his experiences with some of the younger Indian players and other overseas players from around the world.”