Cricket South Africa (CSA) has announced that AB de Villiers will not be coming out of international retirement. CSA has stated that De Villiers has decided 'once and for all, that his retirement will remain final’.
The right-handed batsman retired from international cricket in May 2018 but has been featuring in different T20 leagues. While he was playing for the RCB in the IPL 2021, ABD was in talks with head coach Mark Boucher on a possible comeback to the national side in view of him being a part of the South African squad for the World T20 slated to take place in India later this year.
"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," de Villiers had said.
"Also, the situation with his team - he's got to look at his guys who have been performing well over the last while. 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 [the chat with] Bouchy towards the end of the IPL, and we will then plan accordingly."
Ever since his retirement, talks of ABD’s return to international cricket made the headlines. In fact, according to 'ESPNCricinfo', de Villiers made an offer to play the 50-over World Cup in 2019, a day before the squad was to be announced. However, his offer wasn’t accepted by the management at that point of time.
One of the hard-hitters of the ball, de Villiers holds the record for the fastest ODI hundred. He notched up a ton in just 31 balls against West Indies in 2015 in Johannesburg.