Why RCB named Faf du Plessis as captain? A look at his overall captaincy and IPL records

Faf du Plessis is the new RCB captain (Source: Twitter)

Faf du Plessis has been named as the new captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), replacing former Indian captain Virat Kohli, who was at helm from 2013. 

The former South African captain has played in 100 matches in IPL, scoring 2935 runs with the highest score of 96. He has 22 fifties and played with a strike rate of 131.08. 

Faf played a crucial role in helping CSK clinch the IPL 2021 title. He smashed 86 off 59 balls to take CSK to their fourth title.

He has been in terrific IPL form. In the last two seasons, he has shone for CSK with the bat, scoring 449 runs in 2020 and 633 runs in IPL 2021. His strike touching 140 mark in both the seasons. 

"Happy to pass on the baton to Faf! Excited to partner with him and play under him" - A message from @imVkohli for our new captain @faf1307. _#PlayBold #RCBUnbox #UnboxTheBold #ForOur12thMan #IPL2022 pic.twitter.com/lHMClDAZox

— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) March 12, 2022

He was appointed as Proteas' full-time T20I captain in February 2013, before he took over the Test captaincy from AB de Villiers in 2016.

In September 2017, he was named the ODI captain as well. Under him, South Africa made the semi-finals of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in 2014, but failed to replicate that in the following edition in 2016.

He had a great beginning as Test captain, with two series wins in New Zealand, one in Australia and a 3-0 sweep of Sri Lanka at home during the 2016/17 season. He won 17 of his first 20 games as the ODI captain, which included series sweeps against Australia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at home, and an away 2-1 win against Australia.

He led Proteas in 40 T20Is out of which they 25. In other formats, he led SA in 36 Tests, 39 ODIs of which South Africa won 18, 28 respectively.