Is Faf du Plessis Retired from International Cricket?

Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis is leading Royal Challengers Bangalore in Indian Premier League 2023. Although he has been playing in different T20 leagues around the globe lately but has been absent from the South African national squad for a while now.

A primary reason behind du Plessis’ absence from international cricket is his differences with CSA (Cricket South Africa). In the recent past, the board wanted du Plessis to be available for them all the time, whereas, the player wanted to play in the different T20 leagues as well. du Plessis lost his central contract due to the same reason.

However, the right-handed batter has expressed a desire of playing the white-ball formats at the highest level several times in this period. Ahead of ICC T20 World Cup 2021, Graeme Smith, former South Africa captain and then director of cricket at CSA, also claimed that they tried to convince du Plessis but the talks remained futile.

Is Faf du Plessis Retired from International Cricket?

du Plessis announced his Test retirement in 2021, but it is to be noted that he is still available to play both the limited-overs formats. Interestingly, South Africa’s new white-ball coach Rob Walter is keen to have du Plessis in the national team again. The board is considering handing a single-format contract to the 38-year old player this time around.

According to ESPNcricinfo, Walter and du Plessis have already talked about the latter’s imminent return for South Africa. Walter believes that du Plessis can be a great addition to the side keeping ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in mind.

Enoch Nkwe, CSA’s Director of Cricket, has also confirmed Walter’s interest in calling back freelance players. Without naming the players, he revealed that some of the players are still very keen to don the South African jersey again.

“We have always been open to talks with our freelance players and Rob is very much interested in resuming those conversations. We’ve got to try our utmost best to be on the front foot. A lot of players are still committed,” Nkwe told ESPNcricinfo.

Faf du Plessis last international match date

du Plessis last played for South Africa in a Test against Pakistan in 2021 (February 4 to 8). Pakistan won that match by a margin of 95 runs, and du Plessis could just score 22 runs in that match (17 runs in first and 5 runs in second innings).

While his last T20I had come during a home series against England a couple of months prior to the last Test, he hasn’t played an ODI since ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.