2LT National News

Cape Town – Free of the pressures that came with leading the Proteas, Faf du Plessis is embracing his new role in the T20 side.

Du Plessis stood down as captain of the national side in all formats last week following a 3-1 Test series defeat to England, and after having taken some time away from the game to gather his thoughts and re-assess, he is back in the fold now and making a play at the T20 World Cup in Australia towards the end of this year.

His future in ODI and Test cricket remain uncertain, but Du Plessis’ statistics in T20 cricket where he averages over 35 at a strike rate of 134.54 suggests he still has a role to play for his country in the format.

More than that, though, is what he brings to the table in terms of leadership and assistant coach Enoch Nkwe says that Du Plessis has been brilliant at working with new skipper Quinton de Kock during the ongoing Australia series.

“He is blending in nicely. It’s never going to be easy being in that sort of position and then giving it up and trying to find where you fit into the team,” Nkwe told media at Newlands on Tuesday.

“He’s been fantastic. We’ve actually given him the space to play a different leadership role to assist the new crop of leaders, in particular Quinton.

“In PE they worked together on how they’re going to work tactically be in a better winning position.

“It was fantastic from his time in terms of how he helped Quinton in different situations. We do need that sort of experience, we can’t just throw it away.”

With the series tied at 1-1, De Kock will be looking to win his first series as full-time captain in the third and deciding T20 at Newlands on Wednesday.

Play starts at 18:00.