Faf du Plessis

François "Faf" du Plessis (/ˈduːplɛsi/ DOO-pless-ee; 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. In 2015, du Plessis became the first South African to score centuries in all forms of the game. He was named as the South African Cricketer of the Year in 2019.

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 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.

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.

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.