De Villiers, who announced his retirement from international cricket in May 2018, has, over the past two years, indicated at returning to the South Africa fold.

In January this year, while playing the Big Bash League in Australia, de Villiers had admitted that he was in discussion with Mark Boucher and Graeme Smith at Cricket South Africa and was hopeful to “be involved as well pretty soon”.

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When asked on the Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected if he would have liked to have de Villiers for the T20 World Cup, de Kock, who was named captain in February, said that he the team was pushing for his inclusion before the pandemic disrupted the international schedule.

“Look, he was definitely in line. If fit, I would have loved to have AB de Villiers,” said de Kock. “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 Villiers was a part of the recent 3TC Solidarity Cup, Cricket South Africa’s experimental new format, showing no signs of rustiness with a 24-ball 61.

Last year, de Villiers was under the spotlight for making a surprise offer to return to the South Africa team ahead of the 2019 World Cup, which was turned down by the South Africa management, 24 hours before they announced the final 15 for the tournament.