8 Faf du plessis

Francois du Plessis

Faf du Plessis has been representing South Africa since 2011, and in those years he has been determined to make his mark on world cricket. His ODI debut came in 2011, when he forced his way into the national line-up after scoring more than 500 runs in South Africa’s domestic competition. A half-century on debut against India marked a solid start for the right-hander, who also played seven matches during the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, with his best knock of 52 coming against Bangladesh. His Test debut came one year later, in 2012 against Australia in Adelaide. It was a remarkable debut, he scored 78 in the first-innings and followed that up with a match-saving 110-not-out in the second. du Plessis scored his first one-day century against Australia in August 2014 and that performance was shortly followed by another two centuries, including 126 against Australia followed by 121 against Zimbabwe. He then fell just four runs short of becoming the first batsman in history to score four ODI centuries in any multi-team ODI tournament, when he was caught off the bowling of Mitchell Johnson for 96 in the final match of the series.

Du Plessis went to Afrikaans High School for Boys, the same school attended by AB de Villiers, Heino Kuhn and Jacques Rudolph.