Johannesburg: After newly-appointed South Africa head coach Mark Boucher said he is open to asking retired AB de Villiers to play in the T20 World Cup 2020, skipper Faf du Plessis has said the conversation regarding the matter has been on for the last several months.
du Plessis said everyone wants the destructive batsman to make a comeback and he too feels the same way.
“People want AB (de Villiers) to play and I am no different,” du Plessis said after his Paarl Rocks team – coached by Boucher with de Villiers also in the team – won the Mzansi Super League (MSL) T20 final on Monday night.
“Those conversations have been happening for two or three months already: what does it look like, how does it look over the next year, and that’s where it starts,’ he was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
de Villiers had retired from international cricket in May last year and tried to come out of it ahead of the 2019 World Cup, making himself available for selection. However, Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) selectors felt it was too late.
He was the third-highest scorer at the recently concluded MSL, amassing 325 runs from nine matches at an average of 46.42 with four half-centuries.
In 78 T20Is, de Villers has so far scored 1672 runs, averaging 26.12 with a strike rate of 135.16. He had last featured in a T20I contest against Bangladesh at Potchefstroom on October 29, 2017.
