3 reasons why Delhi Capitals appointing Faf du Plessis as vice-captain ahead of IPL 2025 is the wrong move

Delhi Capitals (DC) announced South African batter Faf du Plessis as their vice-captain ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. The franchise also recently named all-rounder Axar Patel as their new captain.

Faf du Plessis was released by Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction after leading them for three seasons (2022 to 2024). He was then bought by Delhi Capitals at his base price of ₹2 crore at the mega auction.

Du Plessis has played 145 IPL games in his career so far and has scored 4571 runs at an average of 35.99 and strike-rate of 136.36, with 37 half-centuries. He has also played for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rising Pune Supergiant (RPSG) apart from RCB.

While he does bring in captaincy experience which could benefit DC, appointing him as the vice-captain ahead of IPL 2025 could be the wrong move, and here are three reasons why:

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#3 Delhi Capitals will be forced to play Faf du Plessis in all games

With Faf du Plessis being announced vice-captain, it is likely that he will now play all the games for the Delhi Capitals in the IPL 2025 season.

Given that he is an overseas player and not in great touch coming into this season, being in a situation where he will have to be played in all games is not ideal for a franchise.

Should Du Plessis fail to perform with the bat or struggle to score, the team management could get into a dilemma over whether to drop him or not considering the team dynamics.

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#2 Recent form and added pressure of a leadership role

While Faf du Plessis performed well with the bat for RCB in the last three seasons, his recent form coming into IPL 2025 has not been great. In the recently concluded SA20 2025, Du Plessis scored just 286 runs from 11 matches at an average of 28.60.

The Delhi Capitals could have looked to make use of him as a batter alone, without the added pressure of leadership given his current form and the stage his career is at.

Moreover, with Harry Brook pulling out just ahead of the start of the season, Du Plessis will have an even more important role to play as a batter.

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#1 Du Plessis not a long-term option for leadership

Faf du Plessis, who is already 40 years old, is certainly not getting any better by the day. Having him in the leadership role may not be the right choice keeping the larger picture in mind.

There are question marks over how long Du Plessis will carry on playing in the IPL. There is a possibility the South African may not even play the full three-year cycle until the next mega auction.

Considering this factor, even as a vice-captain, Faf du Plessis is certainly not a long-term option for any leadership role. This could also have been a possible reason why he was released by RCB after IPL 2024 despite decent performances.