Faf du Plessis to call time on Twenty20 International career after 2020 World Cup

Faf du Plessis has laid out his retirement plans and it begins in 2020. The South Africa skipper has said he might call time on his international Twenty20 career after the end of the World T20 which will be held Down Under in two years’ time.

Speaking in a media interaction ahead of the one-off Twenty20 International against Australia in Canberra, du Plessis said, “The T20 World Cup is in Australia and that's not too far away, so hopefully we'll be back for that and that will probably be my last international tour I would think.”

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The last Twenty20 World Cup was held in 2016 in India and it was won by West Indies for the first time. In 2020, the tournament will be played in Australia for the first time. The country has hosted very few ICC tournaments, having hosted the 50-over World Cup in 1992 and 2015, in addition to several U-19 World Cups.

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The South Africa skipper said the strength of Twenty20 leagues all over the globe is a big challenge for international teams in a bilateral series. Du Plessis said with most key players playing in the leagues, the international game becomes a testing ground for youngsters and many people do not come to watch them.

“T20 cricket for us over the last two or three years has been a case of bringing in the young guys, giving them an opportunity, so we never really play our strongest XI, which isn't great for the international game. Fans come to watch the best players play,” Du Plessis said.

South Africa have continued to pile on the agony against Australia in recent times. They are the only team to beat the Aussies in their own den for three consecutive times. Even in ODIs, they were the first team to whitewash Australia 5-0 in 2016 before winning the ODI series here 2-1. Du Plessis remarked playing against Australia brings out the best in him.

“I really love playing against Australia. It's a hard place to come and travel – when you come here, people don't always expect you to beat Australia, so that once again brings the best out of me as a captain out of me as well,” Du Plessis said.

After the end of this series, South Africa will host Pakistan in December ahead of the 2019 World Cup.