South African middle order batsman Rassie van der Dussen was not surprised to hear that former skipper AB de Villiers wanted to play in ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, but believed that his comeback would have set a “difficult precedent”.
It's quite likely that if AB de Villiers would have been recalled, Dussen wouldn’t have got a chance to represent his nation in the World Cup.
"It's not necessarily the best question to ask to me because I am involved in it but had he not retired it definitely would have influenced me directly," he said.
"But you can't, on the day before the announcement and a team that's been working for something for a year and even longer than a year, come and say, 'I want to make a comeback now'. I am not saying he was wrong or he was right; so don't misquote me. But it would have set a difficult precedent - not necessarily a wrong one because it's still AB, he is still one of the best players in the world - I just think it was handled maybe not in the correct way from his side."
South African squad was informed that de Villiers wants to come out of retirement at their pre-tournament team camp, which included scaling the Table Mountain and training at the High-Performance Centre in Pretoria.
Kagiso Rabada and some other players have given little away about their opinion on the matter, but van der Dussen explained de Villiers had been given options to make a comeback, which he refused.
"As I believe it, Ottis [Gibson, the head coach] and Faf [du Plessis, the captain] gave him opportunities to, say, 'Let's manage your workload going into the World Cup because we want you to play a World Cup'. He had a fair chance to manage that and he said no and that he is happy to retire and that's fair enough. And Faf accepted it, Ottis accepted it and they stood by it," van der Dussen said.
Zondi, Gibson, and du Plessis confirmed that they told de Villiers, that he needs to play some part in series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka which took place earlier this year, to stay in contention.
Van der Dussen debuted for South Africa in the series against Pakistan and impressed with his bat. He scored five half-centuries in first nine games he played, to earn his maiden World Cup call. Even at the tournament, he has been a convincing performer.
Currently, he is second highest run-scorer for South Africa with 113 runs in three matches, one run behind Quinton de Kock. He labeled the tournament the ultimate test of a player’s ability, which is why he understood AB de Villiers' interest in coming back.
"I wasn't surprised [that he wanted to come back]," van der Dussen said. "The media and the press reports quite a lot on AB and the things he's said and how his last year has gone. I wasn't surprised that he would want to make a comeback on the world's biggest stage. That's the thing all the biggest players in sport have in common. They want to perform when the pressure is on and when the stage is at its biggest."
Despite knowing, he would have missed World Cup if de Villiers would have been in the side, van der Dussen doesn’t think the situation has put extra pressure on him.
"In terms of did, it affect me? No. I am quite happy to be mentioned in the same sentence as AB. He is obviously one of the best there has ever been," van der Dussen said. "So do I have to replace him? I don't feel I have to. Can I play match-winning innings for my country? I believe I can. Is that what he did? Yes, he did. It didn't have as big an effect as I think people would like to believe it had." he concluded.
(With ESPNCricinfo inputs)
