Faf du Plessis

François "Faf" du Plessis (born 13 July 1984) is a South African professional 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.

He is also regarded as one of the most tactically astute and successful captains in all formats of modern cricket.

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".

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 is among the top 5 not-currently playing batsmen with the all-time highest batting averages in Cricket World Cup having played 20 or more matches and is averaging 57.87 in world cup games.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.

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.

In 2015, du Plessis became the first South African to score centuries in all forms of the game.

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 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.

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.

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.

He was named as the South African Cricketer of the Year in 2019.

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 June 2023, Texas Super Kings announced du Plessis as the captain for the inaugural season of the Twenty20 league Major League Cricket (MLC).