AB de Villiers was to make international comeback and play T20 World Cup: Quinton de Kock

Former batsman AB de Villiers was in line to make an international comeback and play the T20 World Cup, says South Africa’s white-ball captain Quinton de Kock.

Former captain Faf du Plessis and newly-appointed head coach Mark Boucher had confirmed that conversations had been ongoing to bring de Villiers back into South Africa’s T20I squad. 

“He was definitely in line. If fit, I would have loved to have AB de Villiers,” the 27-year-old de Kock said while speaking on Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected. 

“I think any team would have loved to have AB de Villiers in their team. While we were pushing for him, now we will have to see when the T20 World Cup is going to happen now.”

The former Proteas skipper de Villiers, who announced his retirement from international cricket in 2018, had expressed his desire to return. However, the quadrennial tournament has now been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the delay in the tournament, doubts have resurfaced about de Villiers’ return. 

The 36-year-old de Villiers has featured in 114 Tests, 228 ODIs and 78 T20Is for South Africa. He recently was a part of the inaugural 3TC tournament in Centurion and put on a show with the bat and helped his team clinch the gold medal. 

“I don’t know what to expect, to be honest. It has been quite a few months now and nothing really has been properly scheduled yet,” de Villiers was quoted as saying by iol.co.za.

“Obviously I would just like to get out there and play cricket. There are lots of talks, but in the meantime, I will stay fit in the gym and hit cricket balls. Hopefully, the virus moves on and we can get back to as normal as possible in no time.”

Not just the 2020 World Cup, but reports of de Villiers ready to come out of retirement and play in the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales was doing the rounds, however, the move didn’t materialise in the end.