Why Is Faf du Plessis So Underrated?

image-lk108i8cFaf du Plessis became a household name due to CSK (Twitter)

For as long as the great game of Cricket will last, one will endlessly debate about what makes a batsman great? Is it the sheer heap of runs alone? Or is the number of centuries and fifties hit amid difficult circumstances? Or better yet, is it showing a streak of consistency across a span of time one would dub considerable? 


Isn't Faf a great of the game

For if any or all of the above are worthy yardsticks by which to judge the greatness of a batter, then a question comes forth on our chatter tables and that incessantly endless penchant for discussion: 

What else does Francois “Faf” du Plessis need to do besides what he has already done in order to be considered a batting great? 

We admire him for his immense stamina to soldier on and a sense of physicality that would merit him Hollywood contracts. Some like him for his hard-as-nails character and mental toughness. 

Others have quite admired the ability to keep a cool head, especially amid pressure. 

But fact is, Faf has given heaps of work to record keepers and number crunchers whilst designing a career that’s been a combination of style and substance. 


A fine record as leader and batter

At a time where we perhaps obsessively remained focused on Dhoni’s leadership, Faf became the first captain to defeat Australia in all three formats of the game, an achievement that’s as underrated as Du Plessis' overall career. 

At a time where we heaped dollops of praise on the Fab Four - Kohli, Smith, Williamson and Root - from the onset of 2017, Faf produced eye opening numbers in one day cricket; averaging 60 in 2017, 62 in 2018 and 67 in 2019. In all these years, his strike rate was north of 88. 

To a generation for whom batting greatness began and ended with just Abraham de Villiers, Faf silently went about doing his job, emerging as the only South African cricketer, as on date, to have never been dismissed for a duck in T20I cricket. 

image-lk10f0rzFaf has scored 11,198 runs for Proteas (Twitter)

When the batting obsessed endlessly debated and trolled one other regarding the player of the best cover drive, a debate that still rages on circling Virat and Babar, little was spent to appreciate the fact that Faf du Plessis is still the first South African cricketer to strike a century across all three formats of the game. 


An unheralded legend of SA cricket 

In an age circling around mind games, name calling, manners of celebration, where the manner of a send off is as intricately discussed as perhaps even the manner of sledge, maybe we cared too little about Faf's consistency. 

The right hander played 108 international innings before registering a first duck in the game; a record that’s not in possession of any of his contemporaries, whether Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Babar Azam, Kane Williamson and even Steve Smith. 

For over a decade, Faf aligned mental toughness to a volcanic appetite to score runs, a streak that’s often been overshadowed by the great AB de Villiers. 

For a better part of his career, those who played alongside him hogged the limelight and little could one be blamed when there was a quintuplet of exceedingly bright names in the Protea camp - Kallis, Steyn, Morkel, Amla and AB. 


A marathon man

And perhaps to our misfortune, by the time we began focusing on Faf, those big names possessing astronomical successes had all stepped away from the sport. 

Yet, Faf soldiered on uncomplaining as ever in quite the fashion in which he’d begun when in 2012, he faced 376 deliveries for his marathon 110 that saved a famous Test at Adelaide. What often goes rather unsung is that in what was his first ever international assignment, Du Pleassis emerged as a colossus of focus, facing 535 deliveries in that absorbing contest against a Lyon, Hilfenhaus and Siddle-powered attack. 

image-lk10p80f

So much of what Faf du Plessis has done and often for the heroics of South Africa has gone lingered in the ebb of the unappreciated. 

For instance, when AB fired that mega 162 against the West Indies in 2015, it was Faf who had laid the solid foundation to that mountain of a score with his timely 62. 


The under-appreciated giant

In the heart breaking semi final loss suffered against New Zealand, circa 2015 ODI World Cup, where AB and Miller played blinders, the latter striking a eighteen ball 49, it was Faf who had laid big impetus to a challenging first inning total with his gutsy 82 off 107. 

A team player, a combiner of resilience and flair, perhaps the current generation will think too little about the fact that Faf steadied the South African ship during its most testing and volatile period that began effectively 2018 onwards where the retirement of one giant talent after another- Morkel, AB, Steyn, Philander and finally, Amla- became a finality. 

The current team that is skippered by Bavuma has products shaped by Du Plessis’s calm and astute leadership- whether one speaks of Roussouw, Markram, Shamsi, or Rabada. 

It’s perhaps to the misfortune of South Africa that while he’s still fit and ready to drag the body through the drudge, the Proteas are missing a trick by not selecting Faf for the next World Cup. That’s someone with over 1,500 T20 World Cup runs to his name. 

However, it’s to our fortune that we’ve been entertained and are still being entertained by a lion from South Africa whose life has had setbacks but no full stops. 

Happy 39th Faf!