AB de Villiers recapitulates his intentions of playing in the T20 World Cup

One of the modern greats of the game, AB de Villiers has again expressed his desire to be part of the South African national team in the upcoming T20 World Cup slated to be played in India later this year (October-November). AB de Villiers has been in stupendous form in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League. Having last played professional cricket in the 2020 IPL, De Villiers never looked like playing after so many months. 

Yet again he proved that why he is one of the finest batsmen of all time. Over the years ABD has been an integral part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore set-up. On Sunday De Villiers smashed his way to a match-winning 76 of a mere 34 deliveries on a relatively difficult Chennai pitch. Riding on his special knock, RCB posted a mammoth total on the board and in the end, the score of 204 proved to be way too much. Following his exceptional knock, ABD confirmed that he will be having some discussion with his former teammate and the current national head coach Mark Bouncer on his chances for the T20 World Cup in India. 

"I haven't had a discussion with Bouchy (Mark Boucher) yet. We are lined up to have a chat somewhere during the IPL but yes we have been talking about it," de Villiers said. "Last year, he asked me if I would be interested. And I said, 'absolutely'. And come the end of the IPL, we will have a look at where we are at with regards to my form and my fitness.

"Also, the situation with his team - he's got to look at his guys who have been performing well over the last while," he noted. "If there's no space for me, so be it. If I can slot in there, it will be fantastic if all those things fall in place. Waiting for Bouchy towards the end of the IPL, and we will then plan accordingly."

AB de Villiers suddenly announced his retirement from international cricket in 2018 but he had made his intentions clear that he wanted to feature in the 2019 ODI World Cup in England. However, the team management and the selectors agreed in unison that it was too late to add ABD in the squad. De Villiers were earlier criticised for picking and choosing series and that might have played a role in his request being not accepted. Meanwhile, Boucher had confirmed during the South Africa-Pakistan series that he had had a word with De Villiers before he left for the IPL. 

"The conversation is still very open," Boucher had said. "AB being the person he is, he wanted to perform very well at the IPL to prove to himself and everyone else that he's still a key figure in world cricket and can dominate at that level. I said to him, 'You go do your thing and I'll give you a shout towards the end of the IPL and see where you are,” Boucher said.