T20 World Cup 2021: I Expected It - Faf du Plessis Reveals His Exclusion From South Africa Squad Was Almost Certain

South African batsman Faf du Plessis stated that the team management was always going to stick with the bunch of players who had been playing together for a while and his performances in the Indian Premier League (IPL) were never a factor in selection.

Du Plessis also implied that there are a lot more background issues regarding the same but he had come to terms with the fact that he wasn’t going to be traveling with the squad to the UAE for the tournament.

“I expected it. When I wasn’t selected for the Sri Lankan tour, I expected that was the team that will be going to go to the World Cup. My expectations were that I wasn’t going to go to the World Cup, even though my performances in the Indian Premier League (IPL) were exceptional.“

“I don’t think that [my performances in the IPL] mattered because they had already decided they will pick a team that was playing together in all the games leading up to the World Cup. There is a lot more to it but I knew that was the time that I was not going to go to the World Cup,” du Plessis said.

“It is unfortunate that it happened that way” – Faf du Plessis on the Quinton de Kock story

Earlier in the tournament, wicket-keeper batsman, Quinton de Kock, refused to take the knee ahead of a match against West Indies. Soon after, he issued an apology stating that he didn’t mean to offend anyone and also went on to explain his reasoning behind it. Speaking about the same, Faf du Plessis said:

“It was very tough, especially to have that put on them on the morning of the match. That was a difficult situation because players are so focused on playing the game of cricket that they don’t always think about the other stuff. It is unfortunate that it happened that way and I thought in the South African context of what we deal with, that was a very difficult situation to be put in.“

“I have certainly seen from my own perspective that whatever you do people criticise you, whether you take the knee or you don’t take the knee, you will have equal backlash from the different spectrum. I think what is important is that the team shows a united front and it was good to see they did take that stance together in support of Black Lives Matter (BLM),” du Plessis added.

South Africa won four out of five games in the T20 World Cup but couldn’t make it to the semifinals owing to a weaker net run rate.

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