The South African captain, Faf du Plessis has relinquished himself from the captaincy duties from the Test and ODI format. Quinton de Kock has already taken over the baton in the ODI format and he is only expected to take on the reins in the other two versions of the game. South Africa had touched new lows as they lost the home Test series against England by 3-1 after they were hammered in India.
In fact, Faf du Plessis could not find any place in the T20I and ODI series against England. Meanwhile, Faf du Plessis led the Proteas in a total of 112 International matches. du Plessis led South Africa for the first time in the T20I series against New Zealand in 2012. The Proteas had won that series by 2-1.
South Africa will need to bounce back.
On the other hand, Faf du Plessis had scored 5101 runs as captain of the Rainbow nation in which he scored 11 centuries and 28 fifties.
“The last few weeks of rest away from the game have given me a lot of perspective on the great privilege and honour I have had in representing and leading my country in the three formats of this wonderful game. It has been a rewarding, sometimes tough and other times a lonely road, but I would not replace the experience for anything, because it has made me the man that I am proud to be today,” Du Plessis said via a press statement released on Monday.
Du Plessis continued: “When I took over the leadership, I did so with the commitment to lead, perform and most importantly, to serve. As the team heads into a new direction with new leaders and a young crop of players, I feel it will be in the best interests of South African cricket to relinquish the captaincy in all formats. This was one of the toughest decisions to make, but I remain fully committed to supporting Quinton, Mark and my team-mates as we continue to rebuild and re-align as a group.
South Africa is in the rebuilding phase and Quinton de Kock will like to lead from the front. Furthermore, head coach Mark Boucher has confirmed that AB de Villiers can make a return to the national side for the T20I World Cup.
South Africa will next host Australia for three T20Is and as many ODIs.