South Africa former talisman batsman AB de Villiers could make a return to International cricket as can be picked for the T20I series against West Indies.
Cricket South Africa Director of Cricket Graeme Smith has confirmed that South Africa will travel to the Caribbean nations for five T20I and two Test matches and AB can return to the Proteas colours in the shortest format of the game.
AB had shown his interest to make an international comeback for South Africa in the 2020 T20 World Cup. The talisman was in constant talk with head coach Mark Boucher regarding his comeback but the T20I showpiece was postponed due to Covid-19 pandemic and thus de Villiers’ hopes of making a comeback took a hit.
Caribbean Cricket Podcast revealed the news as they tweeted, “Cricket South Africa Director Graeme Smith has today confirmed that SA will travel to WI in June for 2 Tests and 5 T20is at venues yet to be finalised. He also said he is hopeful of free agents AB De Villiers, Imran Tahir, and Chris Morris playing”
In fact, AB had recently shown his interest to once again play for the national side.
He had said in the post-match presentation of an IPL match, “It will be fantastic to play for South Africa again, I will be speaking with Boucher at the end of IPL – last year, he asked me whether I am interested and I said ‘absolutely’.”
Meanwhile, the talisman had sent shocking waves in the cricketing world as he announced his International retirement back in May 2018. However, AB decided to continue plying his trade in franchise cricket all over the globe. But he is back in contention to play for South Africa in the T20 World Cup.
On the other hand, AB de Villiers was in red hot in the recently suspended IPL 2021. The right-hander scored 207 runs in six innings at an average of 51.75 and a whirlwind strike rate of 164.28. In fact, RCB skipper Virat Kohli had stated it is hard to imagine that AB de Villiers doesn’t play International cricket anymore given his consistency.