Faf Du Plessis' Test Captaincy Exhibited Grit And Composure Amid A Period Of Transition In South African Cricket

Faf Du Plessis donned the challenging role of captaining the Proteas team which attained lofty heights and became a top notch unit in red ball cricket before falling to deep lows. His captaincy can be best defined as one marked by two distinct halves which were rather contrasting to each other

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A change in guard in South African cricket was pretty much on the cards when the Proteas were handed a 1-3 defeat by England, their third successive Test series loss coupled with their worst campaign at the 2019 ICC World Cup in England. Faf Du Plessis eventually took the responsibility on himself and stepped down as South Africa's skipper from all forms, marking an end of an era in South African cricket and ushering in a new period in the African nation's cricket . The 35-year-old cited a need to take a step back from captaincy in order to help facilitate the emergence of the next generation of leaders within the team under Quinton de Kock. Du Plessis said it all.. "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,"said du Plessis in a statement. Faf Du Plessis donned the challenging role of captaining the Proteas team which attained lofty heights and became a top notch unit in red ball cricket before falling to deep lows. His captaincy can be best defined as one marked by two distinct halves which were rather contrasting to each other. 18 wins in 36 matches as South Africa's Test skipper reads for a pretty impressive captaincy record by any measures. He skippered the Proteas to wins in 8 out of the 13 Test series under his captaincy. More importantly, winning series in New Zealand and Australia made Faf one of the most successful overseas skippers for the Proteas. When Du Plessis took over as the reins of South African captaincy in 2016, he led the team to victory against New Zealand 1-0 in a 2-match series. Du Plessis continued his winning run as Test skipper in his first overseas assignment, beating the Australians 2-1 in their backyard. Du Plessis had a hat-trick of series wins when he captained South Africa to a 3-0 whitewash over Sri Lanka. Du Plessis was on a roll as he secured his second overseas series win, leading South Africa to a 1-0 win over New Zealand in their backyard in 20. Faf's first Test series loss came at the hands of England when the Proteas lost a hard fought series to the Englishmen 1-2 in 2017. Back to leading the team on home soil, Du Plessis led South Africa to three straight series wins over (Bangladesh (2-0), India (2-1) and Australia (3-1) in 2017-18 season. At that point in time, Du Plessis was widely considered as the best man to lead South Africa in the 'purist'format of the game. After a highly successful run in Test cricket, the first slump for the Proteas in their Test fortunes under Du Plessis began in South Africa's tour to Sri Lanka in 2018, where they were handed a 2-0 defeat. There was a brief revival with the Proteas beating Pakistan (2-0) in their backyard. However, South Africa losing their first series at home to Sri Lanka in 2019 (0-2) were the first signs of Du Plessis' captaincy coming under the scanner. The insult to injury was added when South Africa were clean swept by India (0-3) and the final nail in the coffin came when they lost 1-3 to England in 4-Test series in 2019/20 season. Du Plessis always had the huge burden of succeeding a very strong legacy of leaders and astute captains in Hansie Cronje and Graeme Smith who had skippered South Africa to the very pinnacle of international cricket. To be fair to him, his captaincy came at a time when a lot of the Proteas Test stalwarts were either nearing the end of their careers or battling career threatening injuries. Unlike Graeme Smith, Du Plessis did not have the luxury of having the batting genius AB De Villiers among his batting ranks for long as the batting wizard appeared in only 7 Tests under Faf to prolong his limited overs career. The ever consistent and dependable Hashim Amla's prolonged slump in form also was a worrisome factor for Du Plessis led South Africa. The rest of the Proteas Test batting armoury was good but not world class. While opener Dean Elgar was usually solid up the order with his resilience and grit, the stylish Aiden Markram's exquisite strokeplay was a delight to watch. The dependable Du Plessis led by example and anchored the middle order together with the wristy and eye catching Hashim Amla who produced flashes of brilliance with some of his vintage class. While the tenacious Temba Bavuma had the ability to withstand some hostile spells, wicket-keeper batsman Quinton De Kock excelled in the aggressor's role lower down the order. Meanwhile ODI specialist, JP Duminy played some useful knocks whenever called upon international duty. There was depth in the batting with Vernon Philander and Keshav Maharaj capable of wielding the long handle to good effect. Like many South African skippers of the past, Du Plessis had a world class seam battery at his disposal, which indeed was instrumental in the team being highly successful in the first half of his captaincy. While tearaway seamer Kagiso Rabada was his outright strike weapon, Vernon Philander was an ace up his sleeves on seam friendly decks back home. While the tall Morne Morkel made life tough for the most formidable batting lineups with his steep bounce, pace spearhead Dale Steyn could only make a handful of appearances under Faf as he was bogged down by a spree of injuries. Du Plessis was lucky to see the emergence of a promising young fast bowling brigade in Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje, all of whom produced some match winning contributions during the fag end of Du Plessis' captaincy. In a seam heavy attack, Keshav Maharaj bloomed as Du Plessis' world class spinner of Test pedigree and played his part by chipping in with wickets on the turning sub continent tracks. After taking over from Du Plessis as South Africa's T2OI skipper, Quinton De Kock has been hailed as Du Plessis' successor in Tests and it would be interesting to see as to how does he take the team forward with a bunch of exciting Proteas cricketers in Anrich Norte, Lungi Ngidi, Rassie Van der Dussen, Aiden Markram besides a few others. In a nutshell, if one were to analyse and give a final verdict on Faf Du Plessis' captaincy, he managed to do pretty well as South Africa's Test skipper as he showed tremendous grit and courage to lead the team at a time where they seemed to be in a state of transition and troubled by injuries to some of their key players. South Africa's Best Test XI Under Faf Du Plessis - Aiden Markram, Dean Elgar, Hashim Amla, Faf Du Plessis (c), Temba Bavuma, Quinton De Kock (wk), Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel Reserves - Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje