Former South Africa captain to make sensational return for 2024 T20 World Cup: Reports

Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis can reportedly make a comeback to international cricket, in the T20I format for the Proteas men. As reported by ESPN Cricinfo, the door is still open for the 38-year-old to make his international comeback. As per the reports,  it is understood that the new white-ball coach Rob Walter and du Plessis have had talks about the former captain’s potential return.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) is all set to announce new central contracts this month, with the possibility of single-format contracts being introduced. This could lead to a possible call-up to the national team for du Plessis. As per ESPN Cricinfo, shedding light on the new central contracts, CSA’s Director of Cricket, Enoch Nkwe said, “We have always been open to talks with our freelance players and Rob is very much interested in resuming those conversations”.

"We've got to try our utmost best to be on the front foot. A lot of players are still committed to all three formats but we have some players who are only white ball and some only red ball. What we foresee in the near future, maybe even the next 12 months, is that we might even go more specifically to T20, ODI, and Test contracts. Those are some of the things that we're actually looking at,” he further added.

Du Plessis announced his retirement from Test cricket in February 2021, while keeping himself available for the shorter formats. However, he wasn’t included in the side for any assignment, including the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 and 2022. This attracted criticism from cricketing fans as he kept scoring tons of runs across different T20 leagues in the world. 

Faf du Plessis serves as the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore

Since making his last international appearance, the 38-year-old has scored over 2747 runs at an average of 33.91 in 90 innings. He featured regularly in top T20 leagues like the IPL, BBL, BPL, SA20, CPL, and PSL. Meanwhile, Nkwe went on to confirm about du Plessis keeping in touch with the board for potential comebacks in both the T20I World Cups.

"There were conversations before the World Cup with the selection panel and the coach and they concluded (without a solution)," Nkwe said. "From a CSA point of view, we are happy to engage and see how we can find the best way forward,” he added. Du Plessis replaced Virat Kohli as the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) ahead of the IPL 2022 and led the team to the playoffs in his first season in the role.