Faf du Plessis has decided to call an end to his South African captaincy tenure as per Cricket South Africa's statement on Monday, February 17, 2020. "Cited a need to take a step back from captaincy in order to help facilitate the emergence of the next generation of leaders within the team under the new stewardship of Quinton de Kock," a statement said.

Quinton de Kock was named captain of South Africa for the T20I series in India and has continued in that role while taking over as ODI captain as well against England at home recently. Du Plessis is expected to keep his place in the squad to play three T20s against Australia, starting at the Wanderers on Friday.

Du Plessis was also the Test captain of the Proteas, but with their next Test assignment is only in July against the West Indies, there is no hurry to find his successor.

"The last few weeks of rest away from the game have given me a lot of perspective on the great privilege and honor I have had in representing and leading my country in the three formats of this wonderful game. It has been a rewarding, sometimes tough and other times a lonely road, but I would not replace the experience for anything, because it has made me the man that I am proud to be today,” Du Plessis said.

He further added. "When I took over the leadership, I did so with the commitment to lead, perform and most importantly, to serve. As the team heads into a new direction with new leaders and a young crop of players, I feel it will be in the best interests of South African cricket to relinquish the captaincy in all formats. This was one of the toughest decisions to make, but I remain fully committed to supporting Quinton, Mark and my teammates as we continue to rebuild and re-align as a group."

Du Plessis stressed he's available for selection in all three formats. "South African cricket has entered a new era. New leadership, new faces, new challenges, and new strategies. I remain committed to playing in all three formats of the game for now as a player and will offer my knowledge and time to the new leaders of the team," he said.

Under his leadership, South Africa suffered its worst outcome in World Cup cricket in 2019 edition. "After the 2019 ICC World Cup, I made the decision to continue in my role as captain while the team went through a rebuilding phase following the retirement of some key senior players and a complete overhaul of the coaching staff that we had worked with until then. It was important to me that I stayed to help the team find its feet and plot a new way forward while assisting in identifying the next generation of leaders within the players' group during a time of turbulence in SA cricket. The last season of my captaincy has been the most challenging to date as I had a lot of off-field issues that I devoted my energy towards,” Du Plessis said.

Du Plessis ended his statement saying,” In a perfect world, I would have loved to lead the team in the Tests for the rest of the season as well as the T20 WC, but sometimes the most important attribute of a leader is to be selfless. I am healthy, fit, energized and motivated and certainly see myself playing an important role in the squad for as long as I continue putting in winning performances for the team."