CAPE TOWN: In the Indian Premier League,
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
personifies Chennai Super Kings. Among those the 42-year-old has inspired is former South African all-format skipper Faf du Plessis.
The 39-year-old was picked by the Chennai franchise as an uncapped player in 2011. Having learnt the ropes from Dhoni, Faf moved to the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2022 to marshal the team after Virat Kohli decided to relinquish captaincy.
After a decade with the Dhoni-Stephen Fleming combination, Faf left with the tricks of the trade which continue to hold him in good stead. Faf, who returned in the Super Kings signature yellow as the captain of the Joburg Super Kings franchise at the Betway SA20 League last season, is excited to be back as the season-2 of the competition gets under way on Wednesday.
Speaking about his association with CSK, the seasoned franchise cricket specialist said here, “It was great to be part of the CSK dressing room as a young guy. Probably my biggest learning curve was to work under Stephen Fleming and MS Dhoni. At the start of my leadership journey to see how the big guys do things, it was great. In my first season at CSK, it was all about asking questions and observing.”
Speaking at the captains’ meet, Faf added, “When you play under some great leaders you also understand that it is important to do things in a way that is going to work for you. You just can’t copy different styles all the time.”
‘Can return to internationals’
The top-order bat, who hasn’t been seen in South African colours over the past three years, remained non-committal on returning to the Proteas team for the ICC T20 World Cup.
Faf, who was sidelined from the CPL in August last year due to tennis elbow, returned recently to competitive cricket at the Abu Dhabi T10 league.
Faf captained South Africa at the ICC World T20 in 2014 and 2016 but hasn’t played white ball cricket for the country since 2020. He hasn’t announced retirement either.
Having recently said, “I believe that I can return to international cricket,” Faf was non-committal about signing off at the T20 World Cup.
“For me, getting back from injury is the first priority. I’m looking forward to playing cricket again. Obviously, the tournament is the most important thing, I just want to make sure I play good cricket since it is a great time for us to be still involved in the game.” Faf, who was the second highest run-getter in the 2023 IPL (730 runs), signed off with an openended statement, “We’ll see what happens after the SAT20.”
English (US) ·