Faf du Plessis is a big name in international cricket. Although he retired from international cricket, he still plays league matches. He is the first centurion of the South Africa 20 league, and his performance in the Indian Premier League is outstanding. First playing with Chennai Super Kings, he achieved many milestones. Now playing with Royal Challengers Bangalore, he is adding glory to his name and also handling the captaincy responsibility since 2022.
He guided his team to the playoffs in his first edition as skipper. His captaincy qualities were refined in the IPL, and when asked, he explained everything he had learned in IPL. Talking on the RCB’s podcast season 2, the skipper shared some meaningful learning under MS Dhoni and coach Stephen Fleming with Chennai Super Kings.
“I think what was good for me to go through was, even with all of that, the conviction that I am not going to be Graeme Smith as a captain, I’m not going to be Stephen Fleming as a captain, I’m not going to be MS Dhoni as a captain. To be true to who I am, I need to be me. Because if you’re not you, then people will see through it, maybe not when you’re doing well, but definitely when you are under pressure, or underperforming, the real you will reveal itself,” said Faf du Plessis.
Further, he added what drove him to lead the team with a sense of purpose, and he added that he wanted to do something special with RCB, which gave him a sense of purpose, which drove me more than any money.
“As a cricketer, the moment that reaffirmed to me and told me that I belong at this level and want to be at this level… was (the moment) like, you belong here. Now at this next chapter in my life, I found this new purpose with RCB; as I said, you’ve got something that lights your desire inside you. Yeah, I want to do something special, which gives you a new sense of purpose because I don’t want to play just for the sake of playing. There’s always something that drives me more than just the Rands (money) or whatever,” Faf further added.