Faf du Plessis

Faf du Plessis captained South Africa in 36 Test matches, 39 ODIs and 40 T20Is and led nine T20 franchise teams in a career that is defined by longevity and consistency. In a career that spanned more than two decades, du Plessis went from making a first-class debut at the age of 20 to becoming the oldest player to score a T20 century at 41 years and 340 days old. In-between, he experienced and exemplified some of the game's major changes, chiefly its move from a national-only sport to a league game.

Schooled at the Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool, du Plessis was part of a talented group that included AB de Villiers, Jacques Rudolph and Heino Kuhn but took a different path to national honours. In 2007, du Plessis signed a Kolpak deal with Lancashire and could have been lost to South African cricket. Instead, the rigours of the county system fine-tuned his game so that when he was ready to recommit, he was almost the finished article.

Du Plessis was first selected for South Africa in an ODI squad for the home series against India in January 2011 and named in their World Cup squad shortly afterwards. An altercation with Kyle Mills in the quarterfinal of the tournament established du Plessis as passionate and fiery, qualities he carried throughout his career.

He made his Test debut 20 months later, in Australia, where he pulled off a stonewalling effort for the ages as South Africa secured a second successive series win. In the second innings of the second Test in Adelaide, du Plessis spent more than seven-and-a-half hours at the crease, faced 376 balls and remained unbeaten on 110 to take South Africa to a draw, which set them up for a series win in Perth.

In December 2012, du Plessis was given the T20 captaincy in a series against New Zealand, despite only having played four T20Is prior to that, and leadership seemed a natural fit. He was made South Africa's Test captain in 2016, led them to a third consecutive series win in Australia and, 18 months later, to the first post-readmission home series victory against Australia. He also captained South Africa in T20 World Cup campaigns, in 2014 and 2016, and one ODI World Cup, in 2019, where they were the first team to be knocked out.

Du Plessis' time in charge ended shortly afterwards, as Cricket South Africa faced major upheaval in the home summer of 2019-20. He was stripped of the white-ball captaincies at the start of the season and then stood down as Test captain but continued playing for another year. The end of his international career, in 2021, breathed new life into his franchise game. Du Plessis played in several leagues and improved with age. The continued uptick in his T20 strike-rate was evidence enough of his adaptation to the modern game, with few signs of him stopping even as he entered the mid-40s.

- Faf du Plessis has won two IPL finals, both with Chennai Super Kings (CSK), in 2018 and 2021.

- Du Plessis was the player of the match in the 2021 final for his 59-ball 86, which took CSK to 192 against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

- As of 2025, he is one of the only five players to have scored 4000 or more IPL runs without a century to their name. The others are MS Dhoni, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik and Gautam Gambhir.

- Du Plessis has played for two other teams in the IPL: Rising Pune Supergiant (RPSG) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), captaining RCB since 2022. In 2025, du Plessis will add another name to his IPL team list after he was picked by Delhi Capitals for his base price of INR 2 crore (USD 240,000 approx). He was also named vice-captain.