The deformation behavior of rolled Mg alloy AZ31, previously compressed along the rolling direction (RD), was numerically investigated under reverse tension. The EVPSC-TDT model was employed to study the effect of pre-strain on detwinning for 3%, 6% and 9% pre-compressed materials along the RD. A new criterion was proposed to control the exhaustion of detwinning under reverse tension. Numerical results show good agreement with the corresponding experimental data. It was demonstrated that the proposed criteria can capture the key features associated with detwinning in pre-compressed materials. Regardless of the amount of pre-compression, detwinning is activated under reverse tension, leading to low yield stress and a typical s-shaped flow curve. The inflection point reflects the exhaustion of detwinning, which is delayed when increasing the amount of pre-compression.