Faf du Plessis
François "Faf" du Plessis is a South African cricketer and former captain of the South Africa national cricket team. He is considered one of the greatest fielders of all time and among the best all-format batsmen of his era. One of the most successful international captains of his era with a winning percentage of 73.68 in ODIs, he is the first international captain to defeat Australia in Australia in all three formats of the game and defeat Australia in both Home and Away test series back to back, in 2016 and 2018. In 2016, he also became the first and only international captain to whitewash Australia defeating them 5–0 in a five match ODI series. Du Plessis was often called the magic dragon slayer of Australians and 2010s turned out to be a decade when South Africa dominated Australia like no other team in International Cricket.
Du Plessis's test performance in the 2012 Adelaide test is judged as the best test batting performance by any batsmen on Australian soil since the year 2000, hence making it the best 21st-century test performance in Australia.
du Plessis scored 119 in 56 balls against West Indies, becoming the first South African to score centuries in all forms of the game, and this is currently the highest individual score made by a South African in the T20I format.
He has played South African domestic cricket for Northerns and the Titans, as well as for Lancashire County Cricket Club in England and Chennai Super Kings, Rising Pune Supergiant, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League.
He made his international debut against India in January 2011 in a One Day International, scoring an unbeaten 60 runs, and went on to make his Test match debut in November 2012, becoming the fourth South African to score a Test century on debut. After making his T20 debut in September 2012, he was subsequently also named T20 captain of South Africa for the following Twenty20 series against New Zealand and confirmed full-time skipper in February 2013.
Du Plessis took over the Test captaincy in December 2016 and assumed full-time captaincy in all formats of the game in August 2017 after teammate and former captain AB de Villiers relinquished the two limited overs captaincies. In February 2021 he announced his retirement from Test cricket in order to focus on the 2021 and 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cups.
Domestic and franchise career
du Plessis was given a six-month contract with Lancashire County Cricket Club for the 2008 season as a Kolpak player after impressing the board with good performances in the local Nottinghamshire leagues for Mansfield Hosiery Mills and in the Lancashire League for Todmorden. Following his initial stint with the club, du Plessis signed a new three-year deal. Lancashire coach Mike Watkinson praised du Plessis' fielding, saying "if there's a better fielder in county cricket I've not seen him this season". In March 2010, it was announced that du Plessis would no longer be allowed to play for Lancashire as a Kolpak player after changes to the Kolpak rules. In 2011, he was signed by Chennai Super Kings to play in the Indian Premier League.Along with Jonathan Vandiar, Dean Elgar, and Ethi Mbhalati, du Plessis was one of four uncapped players to be named in South Africa's 30-man preliminary squad for the 2011 World Cup. He was named one of the five South Africa Cricket Annual's Players Of The Year in 2011.
In October 2018, he was named in Paarl Rocks' squad for the first edition of the Mzansi Super League T20 tournament. He was the leading run-scorer for the team in the tournament, with 318 runs in nine matches.
In June 2019, he was selected to play for the Edmonton Royals franchise team in the 2019 Global T20 Canada tournament. In September 2019, he was named in the squad for the Paarl Rocks team for the 2019 Mzansi Super League tournament, and led the team to their first title. In October 2020, he was drafted by the Colombo Kings for the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League. In the same month, he was picked by Peshawar Zalmi to feature in the delayed playoffs of the fifth season of the Pakistan Super League as a replacement for Kieron Pollard. He appeared only in one match as Zalmi were eliminated from the tournament in the first eliminator.
In February 2021, he was signed by the Quetta Gladiators for the 2021 Pakistan Super League but, in June 2021, he was ruled out of the rest of the tournament due a concussion sustained during a match after colliding with teammate Mohammad Hasnain. He captained the Saint Lucia Kings in the 2021 Caribbean Premier League, and the Bangla Tigers in the 2021 T10 League. In November 2021, he was selected to play for the Jaffna Kings following the players' draft for the 2021 Lanka Premier League.
In the 2022 Indian Premier League auction, du Plessis was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore; and named as team's captain on 12 March 2022. In April 2022, he was bought by the Northern Superchargers for the 2022 season of The Hundred in England. In November 2022, the Perth Scorchers drafted him for the first half of the 2022–23 Big Bash League season as a replacement for Laurie Evans.
In 2023, Johannesburg Super Kings announced du Plessis as the captain of the inaugural SA20 league. In June 2023, Texas Super Kings announced du Plessis as the captain for the inaugural season of the Twenty20 league Major League Cricket. In October 2024, du Plessis led Saint Lucia Kings to win the Caribbean Premier League 2024. In November 2025, he signed to play for Biratnagar Kings in the Nepal Premier League.
In November 2025, du Plessis announced his retirement from Indian Premier League on his social media handles. He has withdrawn from IPL 2026 auctions to join Pakistan Premier League
International career
Early days
du Plessis made his ODI debut on 18 January 2011 against India and made unbeaten 60 runs. He was chosen ahead of Albie Morkel for the 2011 World Cup on the Indian Sub-continent and later made his Test debut for South Africa against Australia at the Adelaide Oval in 2012 as the number 6 batsman, replacing the injured JP Duminy.He scored 188 runs in the match and was selected as Man-of-the-match for his resilient performance that ultimately led to the match being drawn and the series being square before the third and final Test in which he scored 78 runs the 1st innings and the last man to be dismissed, taking the South African score to 388 in reply to Australia's 550. In the 2nd innings, he scored a match-saving 110 not out from 376 balls over 466 minutes.
In the next test at WACA Ground, he scored a resilient unbeaten 78 from 142 balls to take his team's score to 225 in the 1st innings, from 75/6 with able support from Robin Peterson, Vernon Philander and last man Morne Morkel. South Africa won the 3-match Test Series against Australia 1–0. In December 2012, he was named captain of the South African T20 team for three matches against New Zealand.
In October 2013, he was fined 50% of his match fee after being found guilty of ball tampering in a Test match against Pakistan. In December 2013, he scored a test match saving hundred with a score of 134 off 309 balls against India while chasing 458 to win in the 4th innings. The match ended in a draw with South Africa on 450/7, only 8 runs short from what would have been the highest successful run chase in test match history. du Plessis made his maiden ODI hundred on 27 August 2014 against Australia after scoring 106 off 98 balls while chasing 327 runs to win. His partnership of 206 runs with AB de Villiers for the 3rd wicket is the highest for South Africa against Australia.
He was also named in the T20I XI of 2013 by ESPNcricinfo for his performances in the year.
His second Hundred came only 6 days later in his next ODI match on 2 September 2014. He scored 126 from 109 balls against the same opposition although South Africa lost by 62 runs. After making his maiden ODI hundred on 27 August 2014, and a consecutive ODI hundred on 2 September 2014, du Plessis followed with a third consecutive ODI hundred, scoring 121 off 140 balls, this time against Zimbabwe on 4 September 2014.
On 6 September 2014 against Australia, du Plessis fell only four runs short of becoming the first batsman in history to score 4 ODI hundreds in a row. He initially looked on course to achieve his 4th ODI hundred until his batting partner AB de Villiers hit 2 sixes and a four in quick succession, which meant du Plessis had to obtain all the remaining runs in the game single-handedly if he was to reach this milestone. Needing only 1 run to win the game with plenty of wickets and balls in hand, du Plessis was on 96 and therefore had to hit a boundary in order to reach 4 ODI hundreds in a row, but while attempting to hit a boundary he was caught off the bowling of Australia's spear-head Mitchell Johnson. South Africa still went on to win the ODI match against Australia comfortably by 6 wickets. This victory also secured South Africa as the winners of the ODI tri-series, and du Plessis subsequently became Man of the Series.
On 17 December 2014, du Plessis set the record for playing the most number of international cricket innings before scoring a duck and also became the only batsman to play in over 100 international innings before first ever duck. On 27 December 2014, du Plessis scored his second first innings century at the same ground: St. George's Oval. On 11 January 2015, du Plessis scored 119 in 56 balls against West Indies, becoming the first South African to score centuries in all forms of the game.
Record breaking year
For the 2016–17 Australian tour of South Africa to play five ODIs, du Plessis was named captain after original skipper AB de Villiers was ruled out due to a surgery. On 2 October, du Plessis scored his sixth century in the second game and became the second cricketer to score centuries in all international formats as captain, after Sri Lanka's Tillakaratne Dilshan. During that same match at Johannesburg, du Plessis become the first batsman to score centuries in all three formats of cricket at a single venue. and is the first South African to score a century in all international formats of the game.du Plessis is the first player to score a century in an innings of a day/night Test as captain. In the same game he set the record for declaration of the lowest ever total ever as an unbeaten captain, where he remained unbeaten on 118 in South Africa's first innings score of 259/9 dec.
On 12 December 2016, with AB de Villiers stepping down as Test Captain, du Plessis also inherited the role.
On 7 February 2017, du Plessis scored 185 runs in the fourth ODI against Sri Lanka, the second highest individual score by a South African, just three runs short of Gary Kirsten's 188*.