South Africa’s coach Mark Boucher, in a recent interaction with the media, was compelled to talk about the international return of their ace batsman AB de Villiers before the start of the ICC T20 World Cup, later this year in Australia.
De Villiers, who announced his retirement post-2018 IPL season, was speculated to make himself available especially for the T20 main event Down Under.
However, Boucher conditioned that it all depends whether they make themselves available for the games in the run-up to the T20 World Cup, after the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The ETA for AB in South African colours should be around June when the Proteas play Sri Lanka. Along with De Villiers, Boucher also expects other T20 free agents to join the squad during the games prior to the world cup in Australia.
“The big one is the IPL so we decided to let those guys – the free agents if you want to call them that – do the IPL and then afterwards make themselves available,” Boucher quoted according to cricket.com.au.
AB is all set to return to India for yet another stint with Royal Challengers Bangalore, under the captaincy of Virat Kohli.
“We’ve still got quite a few games (before the World Cup). From the first of June, which is the Sri Lanka tour, those guys need to make themselves available. Whether we select them is another story. But they need to make themselves available if they want to put their hands up for a World Cup spot,” added the South African coach.
It was only recently that AB de Villiers desired to ‘throw his name in the hat’ for reckoning in the South African squad for the upcoming World Cup.
De Villiers claimed that he was in talks with the likes of Graeme Smith, Director CSA, and coach Boucher, along with former captain Faf du Plessis, regarding the matter.
“I would love to. I’ve been talking to ‘Bouch’ (new South Africa coach Mark Boucher), (new director of cricket) Graeme Smith and (captain) Faf (du Plessis) back home, we’re all keen to make it happen. So I’m thinking of throwing my name in the hat and hoping that everything will work out,” asserted South Africa’s superstar batsman, AB de Villiers.
