South Africa's limited over skipper Quinton de Kock admitted that AB de Villiers was in contention to make a comeback in international cricket and expected to be part of Proteas squad for T20 World Cup, which was earlier scheduled to take place later this year.
De Villiers shocked the world with a sudden retirement from international cricket in 2018 since then he has been playing franchise league tournament regularly.
De Kock said that the former South Africa captain was in line to make a comeback in international cricket.
“He was definitely in line. If fit, I would have loved to have AB de Villiers. I think any team would have loved to have AB de Villiers in their team. While we were pushing for him, now we will have to see when the T20 World Cup is going to happen now,” de Kock said on the Cricket Connected show on Star Sports.
The speculations were on the rooftop that ABD will mark his comeback with a T20 series before T20 World Cup to prove his contention in the team. The mega tournament is now officially postponed, which casts more doubts on his return to international cricket.
However, De Villiers, earlier, said that he will only make a comeback if he feels that he is good enough to play at the international level even though he has been a regular on franchise circuit.
"The most important thing to me is that I have got to be in top form and I have got to be better than the player next to me. If I feel I deserve my spot in the side, it becomes much easier for me to feel that I should be part of the playing XI," he said.
"I have not been part of the Proteas for a while and I feel that it’s important for myself and for other people to see that I am still good enough to be there," he said.
AB de Villiers also denied being approached to lead the national team hours after a TV channel quoted him as saying that an offer has been made by the country's cricket board.
"Reports suggesting Cricket SA have asked me to lead the Proteas are just not true. It's hard to know what to believe these days," de Villiers tweeted.