JOHANNESBURG - South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis has confirmed that the conversations of bringing AB de Villiers back for next year's T20 World Cup "have already taken place”.
The stylish South Africa batsman called time on his international career in May 2018. His coming out of retirement news floated earlier this year, with De Villiers, 35, making himself available for selection for the 2019 Cricket World Cup, but he was overlooked by the selectors.
South Africa are yet to win a World Cup trophy, and with the 20-over edition lined up next year, Du Plessis revealed that the talks of bringing De Villiers back into the T20I set-up "have been happening for two or three months already”.
"People want AB to play and I am no different," said Du Plessis. "Those conversations have been happening for two or three months already. What does it look like? How does it look over the next year? That's where it starts.
"T20 cricket is a different beast, it's not a lot of time away from home," added Du Plessis. "The T20 World Cup is not too far away and there isn't a lot – I reckon 20 T20s over the season – which won't be that hard on one to do that. Those conversations have already taken place.”
South Africa's new coach Mark Boucher also admitted last week that he'd been trying to persuade De Villiers to feature in the T20 World Cup next year.
"When you go to a World Cup, you want your best players playing for you," he said. "If I feel he is one of your best players, why wouldn't I want to have a conversation with him?”