Du Plessis will be hoping to take South Africa to the top of the Twenty20 rankings

South Africa batsman Faf Du Plessis has been named as the country’s new Twenty2o captain after AB de Villiers requested to step down from the leadership role.

The change now means that South Africa have a different captain for each of the formats, Du Plessis leading the Twenty20 side, de Villiers the ODI squad and Graeme Smith the Test team.

“AB has expressed that sometimes he feels that he is not sure about T20 cricket so we have decided to give Faf the leadership,” South Africa coach Gary Kirsten said. “The decision to make AB keep again is because we feel that is our strongest combination. Quinton de Kock will learn from the chances he had and he will be back at some point.”

Du Plessis had filled in for de Villiers during the New Zealand Twenty20 series as well after the wicketkeeper-batsman admitted that he was in need of rest due to his huge workload.

“Handing Faf the T20 captaincy is an exciting option for us to explore our leadership resources,” Kirsten said. “He showed a lot of potential during the series against New Zealand in both the T20 and ODI formats, and this will be another great opportunity for him to work on his role as a leader.

“Having three captains also allows us to spread the resources among our three formats, with Graeme (Smith) and AB also providing the ideal support in the Test and ODI formats. This is an important year for our limited-overs squads and this new direction is an exciting step forward.”

With the Champions Trophy being the next major tournament on the cricket schedule, Kirsten attempted to calm the fears of  all Proteas fans by saying that the selectors already have a fixed team in mind.

“The balancing has been tried to rest players to explore a couple of new guys,” Kirsten added. “We’ve got a strong team.

“I am negotiating with Kallis around involvement in the Champions Trophy and he has expressed interest in it. We would look to play him in a major trophy.”