Faf du Plessis announces Test cricket retirement, to focus on IPL and T20 World Cups

South African veteran Faf du Plessis has announced his retirement from the longest format of the game, thus calling time on a glorious Test career that lasted a little more than eight years. On Wednesday morning, du Plessis took to Instagram and uploaded an official statement where he revealed his decision to retire from Test cricket. The post got lot of positive responses, notably from his ex-Chennai IPL teammate, Harbhajan Singh.

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Faf du Plessis brings down curtains on Test career

Notably, the du Plessis retirement announcement comes just a few days after Australia's tour to South Africa was called off due to the deteriorating COVID-19 situation in the country. Du Plessis uploaded a photo of himself in South African Test jersey and wrote, "My heart is clear and the time is right to walk into a new chapter." He also shared his full statement in the next image.

Here's a look at Faf du Plessis retirement post

Elaborating on his decision to call time on his Test career, Du Plessis said that the next two years will be centred around the ICC T20 World Cups because of which his focus is shifting to the shortest format. The South African added that he wants to play as much of it as possible around the world so that he can be the best player he can possibly be. Du Plessis further said that he believes he has a lot to offer to the Proteas in the T20 format. He reckoned that focusing on T20s does not mean that ODI cricket is no longer in his plans. The 36-year-old clarified that he is just making T20 cricket the priority in the short-term.

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Faf du Plessis Test career

Faf du Plessis made his Test debut on November 23, 2012, against Australia in Adelaide. The cricketer immediately made waves by scoring a sensational fourth-innings century to save the game for his country. The du Plessis stats in Tests make for an impressive reading. The right-hander represented South Africa in 69 matches where he went on to score 4163 runs at a brilliant average of 40.00 to go with 10 centuries and 21 fifties. He also took over South Africa's Test captaincy in 2016 and went on to lead the Proteas in 36 games before relinquishing captaincy duties in January 2020 after a series loss against England at home.

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Faf du Plessis net worth

According to cloudnetworth.com, the Faf du Plessis net worth is estimated to be $14 million. His net worth comprises of his total earnings from brand endorsements and by playing league cricket in various countries. Meanwhile, his annual salary from his duties as South African cricketer is estimated to be $1 million.

Faf du Plessis features in CSK list of retained players 2021

Despite having a dismal IPL 2020, the MS Dhoni-led Chennai defied expectations and has retained most of its squad. After a poor show by the three-time champions in 2020, the squad was expected to head for a complete revamp this year. The franchise has retained most of its players including Ambati Rayadu, Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis and Deepak Chahar. The squad will be led by MS Dhoni as in the previous editions of the IPL so far.

Chennai has also retained young Ruturaj Gaikwad, who made an impact in the last leg of the tournament in 2020, with some brilliant innings as he opened the batting for the team. Ace all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran along with Mitchell Santner have also been retained by the franchise. On the other hand, Kedar Jadhav, Piyush Chawla and Murali Vijay have been released in a bid to increase the franchise's purse amount for the mini-auction. 

CSK list of retained players 2021

N Jagadeesan, R Gaikwad, KM Asif, R Jadeja, MS Dhoni, J Hazlewood, K Sharma, A Rayudu, S Raina, I Tahir, D Chahar, Faf du Plessis, S Thakur, M Santner, D Bravo, L Ngidi, S Curran, S Kishore.

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DISCLAIMER: The above net worth and salary information is sourced from various websites/media reports. The website does not guarantee a 100% accuracy of the figures.

SOURCE: FAF DU PLESSIS INSTAGRAM