Age just a number: Faf du Plessis backs 46-year-old Imran Tahir for SA20 success

Joburg Super Kings captain Faf du Plessis believes leg-spinner Imran Tahir still has plenty to offer in the upcoming Betway SA20 Season 4. 

The Super Kings begin their campaign against Highveld rivals Pretoria Capitals at Centurion on December 27.

Du Plessis and Tahir spent their golden years playing together for the Proteas, reaching the T20 World Cup semifinal in Dhaka in 2014. They have since moved on to the next phase by forging successful T20 franchise careers all around the world and will reunite at the Super Kings again. 

Tahir, though, is 46-years-old already, but the veteran has still been prolific at the Caribbean Premier League where he captains the Guyana Amazon Warriors. 

“Imran is exceptional,” Du Plessis said. “He's one of those guys. I think he's the oldest cricketer that's proper competitive. He's still playing in all the formats.

“His passion for the game is infectious when you're around him. He loves it so much. So we're very grateful that he's with us again.”

Tahir showed he had lost none of his skill, picking up 16 wickets at a miserly economy rate of 6.88, over the past two seasons for JSK. Du Plessis believed this may have attracted bids from rival teams at the auction, but was elated to lure the experienced leg-spinner back at the Wanderers. 

“I think in our heads we were expecting maybe someone else would go for him as well. So we're very lucky that we got him at that price,” he said. 

“I still think he does exactly what he's been doing all the years. He's still putting in all the hard work and he's a great human being. So yeah, happy to have him back.”

Du Plessis is also 41 years old already, and has recently suffered from injury that saw him skip The Hundred competition in England. But the skipper claims he is back to full fitness and is raring to go in Season 4.

“I was playing with some discomfort in my groin for quite a while. I had pretty much the whole IPL where I missed, I think, six games, which was, I think that was the unfortunate thing. I had a nice start to the IPL in terms of my own form and then started getting an injury and then it starts dealing with your body not feeling at its best and then missing and then you lose that momentum a little bit and then didn't get the momentum back as well as I would have liked,” he said.

“So, yeah, I finished the Major League and I was like it's a good time for me to not go to The Hundred. I was supposed to go to The Hundred and just spend some time to fix that. So I had an operation there and also my other tennis elbow and it's been three and a half months now and I'm 100% ready to play again.”