Former Proteas captain AB de Villiers has opened up on his strong bond with Indian skipper and IPL teammate Virat Kohli, saying he is ‘much deeper than just a cricket player’.

De Villiers spoke with SuperSport commentator Pommie Mbangwa in a live Instagram chat on Monday, revealing that his friendship with the star batsman stretches far beyond the boundaries of a cricket ground.

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‘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,’ said De Villiers.

‘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.’

Their time together at the Bangalore Royal Challengers has probably sparked one of the biggest bromances in cricket for players not from the same country.

The De Villiers and Kohli families have also been pictured spending a lot of time together, while the two players did a live chat of their own a couple of weeks ago.

From that conversation it was also quite clear that they have much more in common than just crisp batting.

‘We go pretty deep and his missus as well, Anushka, we have very deep conversations, which is fantastic,’ continued De Villiers continued.

‘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.’