Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis is in the form of his life and is doing well for his Big Bash League (BBL) team Melbourne Stars. His all-around heroics are keeping his team in the contention for the final spot of the semifinal of BBL|08. Recently, he earned his maiden test call for the second Test against Sri Lanka but couldn’t make it to the playing XI.

Meanwhile, Stoinis called his stint in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as life-changing. He recalls a good memory where he got to play with great cricketing minds like Gary Kirsten and Yuvraj Singh in Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) during IPL. In the upcoming season of IPL, he will play for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), who grabbed him from Kings XI Punjab through the trading window.

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Stoinis is looking forward to playing along with Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

“AB and Virat will be the two I’ll be spending my time with and getting as much gold as I can from them in terms of knowledge. AB’s stats might not have been as good in terms of averages, but the way he took the game forward, his innovations, all those things, they can’t be measured on an Excel spreadsheet,” he was quoted as saying by The Age.

The all-rounder is a big fan of De Villiers along with former South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis.

“For me, the IPL has literally been career changing. I first went there to Delhi about four years ago, I had Gary Kirsten as a coach, I played with guys like Quinton de Kock and Yuvraj Singh. I remember having a beer with AB de Villiers after we played Bangalore. I was about 24 or 25 at the time and AB was at his absolute peak and someone who I think is the best cricketer. In my eyes, it’s him and Jacques Kallis,” the 29-year-old added.

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Australia will be touring India for a two-match T20I series before playing five One-Day International matches before the commencement of the Indian Premier League.