South African cricketer Faf du Plessis is poised to make a comeback to the national team's white ball squad after retiring from international cricket in 2021. Although he has been playing T20 cricket with various franchises around the world, his last appearance in white ball cricket was in a T20 match against England in 2020, and his last ODI was against Australia in the 2019 ODI World Cup.
According to a report in the Rapport Newspaper, du Plessis has met with South Africa's new coach, Rob Walter, who will be coaching the team's ODI and T20I teams. The red-ball setup will be coached by Shukri Conrad. Walter is set to announce his first T20 squad on Monday, March 6, for the series against West Indies. Du Plessis' chances of returning to the squad are high due to his impressive performance in the inaugural SA20 2023, where he scored 369 runs at an average of 41.00 and a strike rate of 147.60 as the captain of the Joburg Super Kings team coached by Stephen Fleming.
Du Plessis has expressed his willingness to meet with Walter, saying, "Not about me actually, I think what’s really important for South African cricket … everyone wants the best for South African cricket, so if you can pull in all the guys that have been around the team for a while and make sure we invest as much as we can into making sure that Proteas team is as strong as it can be." He added that both he and Walter are keen to bring together the best cricket brains to strengthen the South African team.
Du Plessis is currently playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL) after two successful seasons with the Chennai Super Kings. He led RCB to the playoffs last season and remained in excellent form in the recent SA20, where he scored 369 runs with an average of 41 and a strike rate of 147.6.
