At the fag end of 30s, Faf du Plessis continues to go strong.
Age, what's that?
Faf du Plessis' performances have not gone down despite his age. When Faf du Plessis decided to retire from international cricket and was sidelined from the South African white ball sides as well, there was a feeling that his career was all but over.
However, it was only after giving up the Proteas captaincy that he was picked up by Royal Challengers Bangalore to take over the captaincy from ViratKohli. Not many would have been comfortable doing so, especially with Kohli still in the team but the experienced captain took it like a champion and seamlessly grabbed the reins of RCB.
Leading from the front
The team performed quite well in IPL 2022 and qualified for the playoffs. They beat Lucknow Super Giants in the Eliminator but then lost in Qualifier 2 to be knocked out of the competition, making 468 runs from 16 matches at an average of 31 and a strike rate of 127.52. He struck 3 half centuries with the best of 96 and has continued to impress in the IPL over the years.
When he was with the Chennai Super Kings for the longest time, he delivered more often. In fact, 2020 when his International career wasn't going anywhere, was his best year when he had a sensational partnership with RuturajGaikwad. Faf du Plessis hit 633 runs in 2021 at an average of 45.28 and a strike rate of 138.20 with the help of 6 half centuries.
An IPL great
Overall, Faf has scored 3303 runs in 106 matches of the IPL at an average of almost 35 and a strike rate of over 130. He has struck 25 half centuries in the competition. The former South African captain has several 90s to his name but is yet to score a century in the Indian Premier League.
His captaincy was also top notch in IPL 2022 as unlike ViratKohli and the previous management he did not make major knee-jerk reactions and allowed the players to grow in their role. As a result, the team looked a lot more settled as compared to the previous seasons and the results are for everyone to see.
