May be Faf is happy to play the T20 leagues: Graeme Smith

Former South African captain Graeme Smith has had his say on the availability of experienced batter Faf du Plessis for the 2022 edition of the T20 World Cup scheduled to be played in Australia. 

The soon-to-be 38-year-old featured last in a T20I fixture for the Proteas against England in December 2020, where he scored an unbeaten 52 off 37 balls. 

Faf has been impressive in the last few editions of the Indian Premier League (IPL). In the 2021 season, he emerged as the second-highest scorer with 633 runs at an average of 45.21 and helped Chennai Super Kings (CSK) seal the title. 

However, the talented batter was not named in the squad for the 2021 edition of the T20 World Cup.

After the culmination of the ICC event, Faf revealed that Cricket South Africa wanted him to play limited overseas leagues and more international games. However, the two parties failed to come to an agreement, and Faf was left out of the South Africa limited-overs side. 

The recently completed edition of IPL witnessed him scoring 468 runs in 16 innings, which was the most number of runs scored by any Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batter. 

On June 19 (Sunday), Smith emphasised that India do not face the challenge of free agents like Faf and urged the South African team to settle on their best XI. 

“South Africa have got an equation where they have to figure out what their best XI is. Faf du Plessis is still fit, retired from the longer formats of the game and it’s that challenge that India doesn’t face free agents,” Smith told Star Sports. 

Smith believes that Faf will have to devote more time to the South African T20I team in order to make it to the T20 World Cup. 

“Players are playing in leagues around the world. How much time can he give to South Africa in the lead up to the World Cup. Do they pick him straight for the World Cup or should he part of the build-up where he understands the team culture, the thinking, training and preparing. India doesn’t face that challenge but for other nations (dealing with) free agents is a difficult one.”

In the end, the former cricketer believes Faf is happy to feature in the T20 franchise leagues worldwide, and that’s where his interest lies. 

“Maybe he is in that phase of his life where is happy to play the leagues, he is retired, maybe from international cricket, maybe that’s where he wants to be,” Smith added.

Meanwhile, Faf will be captaining St. Lucia Kings in the 2022 edition of the Caribbean Premier League.