How Faf du Plessis has reinvented himself since IPL2022
What new should RCB fans expect to see from captain Faf this season?
Ahead of the mega auction of the previous season, AB de Villiers called quits from all forms of the game, leaving only Virat Kohli from the iconic Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) trio that also had Chris Gayle last standing.
They bought Glenn Maxwell to replace Gayle in the auction preceding that, starting the next generation of the trio with Kohli as the nucleus once again.
But faster than the blink of an eye, now came the time to find a successor of de Villiers for the next-gen trio in the mega auction.
It also had to be someone with captaincy experience too, as Kohli had stepped down from the reigns heading into the 2022 season.
The RCB management chose to target Faf du Plessis, an icon of the Chennai Super Kings who played for them for 9 seasons and wasn’t retained heading into the mega auction.
RCB engaged in a bidding war with CSK initially, after they started the proceedings from his base price of 2 crores INR.
CSK eventually backed out at 3.20 crores, ending his official affiliation with the franchise as a whole.
RCB eventually got him for 7 crores after the Delhi Capitals locked horns with them.
It was a bittersweet moment for both him and the Super Kings, given how many memories he’s had playing for them and had been through the highs and lows both individually as a player and for the franchise itself.
Tributes poured in from both CSK fans and the official accounts ahead of his new journey in the league, one that didn’t involve the yellow jersey he donned for most of his IPL career.
However, the vast majority of RCB fans weren’t happy with this buy at all.
He was 37 heading into this season, so age was a concern for many of the fans from the perspective of age-related decline, and his stint in the Bangladesh Premier League was far from encouraging.
Though he was #5 on the runs board at the end of the season, he only really properly got going in 2 out of his 11 appearances.
He scored 295 averaging 36.87 striking at 134.09, with a top score of 101.
However, if you take out the century, it significantly simmers down to 194 runs averaging 27.71 striking at 116.87.
Faf did end up as the 7th highest run scorer last season and overall the top scorer for RCB, but akin to his BPL stint, it doesn’t paint the entire picture.
He scored 468 runs across 16 matches averaging 31.20 striking at 127.52 with 3 fifties and a top score of 96, but once again, this doesn’t tell the true story.
Faf du Plessis was one of the worst at utilizing the powerplay last season, what I coined as a “high risk-high reward” approach during the season that you likely remember me tweeting about, where he would take the entire powerplay to settle in before looking to attack.
When it works, it’s a high reward, but when it fails to translate, it backfires horribly; a high risk.
Faf was noticeably below the tournament average for both average and strike rate.
And his strike rate was especially horrible, at 104.69.
For additional context, it was better than only 6 batsmen who satisfied the criteria set: Aaron Finch, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Ajinkya Rahane, Anuj Rawat, and Kane Williamson respectively.
There are two noticeable instances of this approach falling on the high-risk spectrum for Faf.
The first one was in their tournament opener against the Punjab Kings.
After being put into bat by Punjab, Faf had a disastrous start to the powerplay, scoring just 10 (19) with a solitary four. This also included him being given an extra life after he was dropped by Shahrukh Khan off Odean Smith’s bowling during the 4th over.
It would take him till during the 13th over to finally smash on the accelerator, finishing on 88 (57), striking at 154.38. He finished as RCB’s top scorer and helped post an eventual target of 206, but they would go on to lose by 5 wickets.
During his top score innings of 96 against the Lucknow Super Giants, he was on 15 (17) at the end of the powerplay, with only 2 fours to his name. This time, it took him till the 15th over to put more gas on the pedal, after reaching his 50 off 40 deliveries.
He was eventually dismissed striking at 150, and RCB were able to win by 18 runs.
Regardless, when it’s high-risk, it can be very costly.
Such as in the Qualifier 2 against the Rajasthan Royals.
This time, Faf was above a run a ball at the end of the powerplay, but just barely; 17 (15) to be exact, with 3 fours. He’d play 12 more balls and only amass 8 runs, with no additional boundaries.
RCB were only able to post a target of 158 and went on to lose by 11 balls.
In more coherent terminology, as ESPNCricinfo author Himanish Ganjoo explains, “getting your eye in” and “settling in” is indeed a real phenomenon irrespective of the phase. However, regardless of the phase, as he shows in his “hazard function” created from data of 2500+ high-level T20 games since 2015, the hazard falls after about five runs, as the player is “settled” at that junction.
Notice how the risk of dismissal probability is the lowest of all phases when coming into bat in the Powerplay, and remains the lowest most of the time as more runs are scored in the phase before eventually falling completely flat like a plateau towards the end of the x-axis.
And yet, in spite of opening for RCB the entire season and that too as captain, once again, he maintained a strike rate of 104.69 in the powerplay.
But ever since that IPL season, it’s been a completely new ballgame for Faf.
In his league stints that followed, he’s been looking to attack as quickly as possible, substantially better maximizing the powerplay as a result, for he has shifted from the “high risk-high reward” approach.
Faf is now in the ideal upper right quadrant, with his average and strike rate above average for both metrics across all leagues played since the IPL 2022.
Though the list is now smaller due to the increase in minimum balls faced to satisfy the criteria, he is well at the top in terms of highest average and strike rate, at #5 and #6 respectively.
And the numbers aren’t inflated either.
While he did follow his RCB stint with a horrid campaign in the Hundred scoring 134 runs across 8 matches averaging 16.75 striking at 135.35 as the 26th highest run scorer (including 11 | 106.5 during the powerplay), it has been only upwards and onwards since then.
And that too with high levels of consistency.
In the CPL and SA20, his powerplay numbers read as 70 | 181 and 56.7 | 146.6 respectively.
In the Caribbean, he was the 4th highest run scorer, with 332 runs across 10 matches averaging 41.50 striking at 168.52 with one fifty and a century (top score of 103).
And in South Africa’s second go at launching a T20 league, he was the 2nd highest run scorer, scoring 369 runs across 11 matches averaging 41 odd striking at 147.60, with 2 fifties and a century (a top score of 113*, which was also the first ever century of the league).
And that too for the Joburg Super Kings, a sweet homecoming of sorts.
Naturally, this is very encouraging news for both the franchise and the fans of the franchise.
But, the question begs itself.
What has changed? What has enabled Faf’s reinvention as a T20 batsman at the age of 38? How has he been able to turn back time?
A particular weakness Faf had in the IPL last season was against medium-pace bowlers (more specifically fast-medium pacers). 10 of his 15 dismissals alone came against them!
His numbers read as 25.5 | 125 with a dot ball percentage of 44.1%, noticeably above his tournament dot percentage of 39.5 (4.6% to be exact)
He was also relatively conservative against away-spin (legspin and SLA), averaging 72.5 (owing to only 2 dismissals) striking at 131.8, with a dot ball percentage of 31.8%.
And in the CPL and the SA20, he has looked to work on these weaknesses, especially against medium-pace.
Against medium-pace bowlers in the CPL, his numbers were 32.2 | 181.7, with a dot ball percentage of just 32.4%, 0.6% lower than his tournament dot ball percentage of 33%.
In the SA20, they read as 38 | 181, with the tournament dot ball percentage once again lower than his tournament dot ball percentage of 32.8%, reading as 31%.
However, against away-spin, its been somewhat of a topsy-turvy curve for Faf still.
In CPL, his away-spin numbers improved significantly, averaging 163 striking at 175.3, with a dot ball percentage of 31.2%.
But, this was massively inflated by his SLA numbers, against whom he struck at 200 odd across 64 deliveries, scoring 128 runs with 1 dismissal.
Against legspin, he struggled, striking at only 120.7 across 29 deliveries with no dismissal.
The dot ball percentages were more or less the same too, at 31.2% and 31% respectively, both below his tournament dot ball percentage of 33%.
And just recently in the SA20, he reached yet another trough against away-spin.
His numbers read as 43 | 117.8 with a dot ball percentage of 35.6%. This was noticeably above his tournament dot ball percentage of 32.8%, by 2.8%.
And these numbers too were slightly inflated by legspin this time.
He faced only 4 balls of leg spin (all against Adil Rashid who has evidently shown improvement post-pandemic) and scored 10 runs. However, in spite of Adil’s improvement, it is too small of a sample size to go off by.
Otherwise, he was explicitly vulnerable against SLA, averaging 38, scoring 86 runs striking at 110.1 across 69 balls being dismissed twice, with a dot ball percentage well above his tournament one, reading at 37.7%.
Though it is evident his away-spin struggles still continue to persist to some degree, he has certainly been able to turn back time and once again become ultra attacking against medium pace since IPL2022, and sustaining it with high averages at that.
This has helped him to bring up his 10-ball SR of 90.97 in IPL2022, to as high as 142.10 in the CPL, but saw a noticeable drop in SA20 at 119.23.
It’s certainly crystal clear that the RCB skipper has shifted from the high risk-high reward approach to looking to attack as quickly as possible, a key ingredient for success in modern-day T20s for openers, but to maximize his chances of replicating the consistency and success he has enjoyed in CPL and the SA20, he won’t be able to do it all alone.
He will need the nucleus of the iconic RCB trio to turn back the clock like he has done to shield him against away-spin, for he is once again most likely to open the innings with Faf.
For RCB to have a proper shot at lifting their first-ever IPL trophy, skipper Faf du Plessis will need Virat Kohli to rewind time and be at least half the elite as he used to be against spin once upon a time, to enable the captain to continue doing what he has been doing since his first stint with the franchise.