Another great cricketer of the modern day era Faf Du Plessis has retired from the longest format of the game – Test Cricket. Although, he will remain the part of limited overs cricket for South Africa. While this official news about the retirement has come up before the upcoming Australia tour of South Africa (which is more likely to get postponed due to security and on-going pandemic issues).
"I really wanted to finish with the upcoming Test series against Australia. That would have felt like it has all come full circle. I had that clarity of mind and heart and even though the ending is not how I imagined, the clarity remains," Du Plessis said
Faf Du Plessis has featured in 69 tests for South Africa and played his last test match against Pakistan in February 2021. The career best-score of 199, has come up against Sri Lanka in 2020. Faf Du Plesis made his red-ball cricket debut against Australia in 2012 at Adelaide in a 3-match test series with 188 runs in that match. Later he was awarded with Man of the match which helped South Africa to save the test match and eventually South Africa won that test series by 1-0.
Here is that century from Faf Du Plesis on his test debut against Australia-
"If someone had told me 15 years ago that I would play 69 Test matches for South Africa and captain the side, I wouldn't have believed them. I stand in a place of utmost gratitude for a Test career full of blessings bestowed on me."
Over the years and after the retirement of Graeme Smith, Faf Du Plesis was the one of the vital cog alongside AB De Villiers and Hashim Amla for South Africa in test cricket. While after taking over the captaincy from AB De Villiers, Faf Du Plesis is the only captain to defeat Australia at home and away conditions. As a captain, he has led South Africa on 36 occasions and also won the test series against New Zealand in 2016 season by 1-0 followed by team India in 2018 where South Africa defeated them by 2-1.
Test | Innings | Runs | Average | HS | 50s | 100s |
69 | 118 | 4163 | 40.03 | 199 | 21 | 10 |
With the T20l world cup is near, the right-handed batsman is more likely to focus and represent his nation in the shorter formats of the game. Apart from that he is currently the part of the most successful team in the Indian Premier League Chennai Super Kings who was having a bad season last year and the team will be looking to turn things around with the player who is more likely to focus on the limited overs cricket.
"I strongly believe that I have a lot to offer to the Proteas in this format. This does not mean that ODI cricket is no longer in the plans. I am just making T20 cricket the priority in the short-term," Faf Du Plesis said.
