Auckland, Mar 20 (Reporter) Having last played for the White Ferns in December, in an ODI against Australia, the New Zealand veteran all-rounder Sophie Devine is set to return to the national side for the T20I series against Australia, which begins here on Friday. Devine, now 35, led New Zealand to victory at the ICC Women's T20 World Cup last year, and admitted that during her time away from the game, the thought of retirement was not far from her mind. "Completely honest? Yep," Devine told reporters. "Certainly. To be able to have to process through a few of those things. Obviously, I'm unfortunately not getting any younger, so they naturally sort of came into mind. “But for me, yeah, look, just really excited to be here, just going to be focusing on each day as it comes and just really enjoying every day with the White Ferns," she said. The all-rounder acknowledged that the upcoming ODI World Cup, set to be held later this year in India, played a key role in her decision to prolong her career with the White Ferns. New Zealand last won the World Cup in 2000, and now have a rare opportunity to hold both the T20 and ODI world titles simultaneously, an ICC report said. “We've got a pretty big World Cup coming up later this year, which – all going well – hopefully I'll be at," Devine added. "Certainly the World Cup was probably the biggest one. I still felt like I've got a little bit more to give in the black shirt,” she said. Devine hasn't played a competitive match since January 24, when she featured for Wellington in the Women’s Super Smash. However, she emphasised that her time away had only reinforced her passion for the game, making her realise that the desire to don the White Ferns jersey was stronger than ever. “So for me, I guess that opportunity was there, but also being okay with the fact that if I was done, I've had a pretty good run of it," she said. "But certainly watching the girls over the last couple of weeks, there's certainly a big itch there that's still to scratch," Devine added. New Zealand and Australia are set to face off in a three-match T20I series, starting March 21...////...