There has been a lot of talk about AB de Villiers in the recent past which has not involved his on-field performance. Reports surrounding his return to international cricket have dominated the headlines in the last few months. But de Villiers changed the narrative with a swashbuckling innings in the ongoing Big Bash League. Playing for Brisbane Heat, de Villiers smashed 71 off just 37 balls against table-toppers Melbourne Stars.
De Villiers was impeccable on Saturday as he hit 2 boundaries and 6 huge sixes in his innings for Brisbane. De Villiers had a strike rate of 191 as his team won the match by a mammoth 71-run margin. BBL upload a highlight package of his innings on Twitter. Here is the video:-
Must-watch timeout viewing 📺 @ABdeVilliers17 showed us earlier why he's one of the best the Big Bash has ever seen. @dream11 | #BBL09 pic.twitter.com/oi3ywAHp8r
— KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) January 25, 2020
Heat made out a total of 186 runs on the board in their innings and dismissed Stars for just 115 to pick up the victory. Mitchell Swepson was the pick of the bowlers for Heat as picked up 3 wickets for 31 runs.
Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith has been recently appointed director of Cricket South Africa and one of biggest tasks currently is to oversee AB de Villiers’ smooth return to the limited overs side.
De Villiers has been in talks with the board about his willingness to return to the national team in T20 cricket and with the ICC T20 World Cup slated for later this year, the board is keen to have him back.
“I think it is great that AB has expressed his desire to be back in the system. Those chats (with De Villiers) aren’t formal, but we are looking at options around the T20 World Cup. We would be stupid not to look at the free agents who play in most T20 around the world,” Smith was quoted as saying by The Cricket Times.
De Villiers is currently playing in the Big Bash League in Australia and is slated to make an appearance for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL later this year.
