When Faf du Plessis had retired from Test cricket in early 2021, his aim was to focus on the two T20 World Cups and prepare for those as he wanted to continue playing for South Africa in shorter formats of the game.

However, he was not picked for the T20 World Cup 2021 by Cricket South Africa despite ending up as the second-highest run-getter for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) with 633 runs in the IPL 2021 which ended a few days before the ICC event began.

Now talking to ESPNCricinfo, Faf du Plessis underlined the main issue was CSA’s unrealistic expectations of him playing in the country all the time, which led to him being not selected in the national team.

He said that both parties couldn’t come to a decision or arrangement which allowed him to continue playing in overseas leagues.

"Last year, when I played for South Africa against England in the series there, the plan was still very much to play in the World Cup. And the talks were that leading up to that. But at that time, it was just really difficult for Cricket South Africa and myself to find something that allows me to still play overseas," Du Plessis explained to ESPNCricinfo.

"Because that was the reason why I obviously retired from Test cricket especially. So they tried to, but we couldn't find a middle ground and I think they wanted people that are available all the time. That made it a challenge for the guys like myself and Imran Tahir because we were playing overseas [franchise leagues] as well,” he added.

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"So I think that's the challenge now because we are playing overseas, if they don't want us to play all the games, it's probably an unrealistic expectation,” Du Plessis said.

Faf said he was fit and in the mood to play as much cricket as possible even if it meant playing in the T20 leagues worldwide.

"I still feel physical like I'm in a really good condition to play for however long I want to play for, so I'm fortunate that physically I can do that. For me, age doesn't really matter, like it would for someone else maybe. So it's the mental freshness and the motivation that becomes the two challenges for me. And I'm still very motivated,” he said.

Du Plessis was not retained by the Chennai Super Kings ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction and will enter the auction expecting to get good bids given his form in the league in the past 3-4 years.

(ESPNCricinfo inputs)