Faf du Plessis was selected as the ODI captain of the South African team after AB De Villiers stepped down from the captaincy role making du Plessis the captain across all the three formats. Du Plessis took up the T20 captaincy role in February 2013 and was appointed as the Test captain since August last year.

Du Plessis’ first series as a skipper in all the three formats will be against Bangladesh in a home series later this month. Bangladesh is scheduled to play two Tests, three ODI’s and T20i’s each against the hosts. He will then lead the team against India and Australia for a four test matches each in the home-soil. Du Plessis will have his first away tour as the skipper across all formats when South Africa will face Sri Lanka in July next year.

A statement from Cricket South Africa’s chief executive officer Haroon Lorgat said, “He has established himself as one of the best leaders in world cricket and this was reflected in his appointment as the captain of the World XI currently engaged in the T20 Series against Pakistan.” Du Plessis has been commended as the best leader by his teammates both in T20 and in tests and the players seem to be on the same page with their skipper.

Du Plessis will look to develop a good camaraderie with the new head coach Ottis Gibson who replaced Russell Domingo and will look forward to having a good show in the 2019 World Cup. Du Plessis has played under the new coach earlier, but he said that he spoke to some of his peers from the England Team to have some understanding of his coaching style.

South Africa didn’t have a single captain since 2010 after Graeme Smith stepped down from his T20 captaincy. Then Johan Botha was made the captain for a short period before handing it AB De Villiers in 2011. De Villiers gave up his T20 captaincy in 2013 to Du Plessis. Hasim Amla was made the captain in the longer version of the game after Smith resigned from the post