François "Faf" du Plessis is a South African professional cricketer and former captain of the South Africa national cricket team. He is considered one of the greatest fielders of all time and among the best all-format batsmen of his era. He is also regarded as one of the most tactically astute and successful captains in all formats of modern cricket. In 2015, du Plessis became the first South African to score centuries in all forms of the game. He was named as the South African Cricketer of the Year in 2019.

du Plessis made his ODI debut on 18 January 2011 against India and made unbeaten 60 runs. He was chosen ahead of Albie Morkel for the 2011 World Cup on the Indian Sub-continent and later made his Test debut for South Africa against Australia at the Adelaide Oval in 2012 as the number 6 batsman, replacing the injured JP Duminy.

He scored 188 runs in the match and was selected as Man-of-the-match for his resilient performance that ultimately led to the match being drawn and the series being square before the third and final Test in which he scored 78 runs the 1st innings and the last man to be dismissed, taking the South African score to 388 in reply to Australia's 550. In the 2nd innings, he scored a match-saving 110 not out from 376 balls over 466 minutes.

For the 2016–17 Australian tour of South Africa to play five ODIs, du Plessis was named captain after original skipper AB de Villiers was ruled out due to a surgery. On 2 October, du Plessis scored his sixth century in the second game and became the second cricketer to score centuries in all international formats as captain, after Sri Lanka's Tillakaratne Dilshan. During that same match at Johannesburg, du Plessis become the first batsman to score centuries in all three formats of cricket at a single venue. and is the first South African to score a century in all international formats of the game.

du Plessis has scored centuries on 10 occasions in Test, 12 occasions in One Day Internationals (ODIs) and once in Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is). He scored his first century in November 2012 against Australia on his Test debut, making an unbeaten 110 runs. His highest Test score came in December 2020 against Sri Lanka when he scored 199 at Centurion.

du Plessis attended Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Afrikaans High School for Boys, also known as Affies), a public school located in Pretoria. He attended alongside fellow Titans cricketers AB de Villiers, Heino Kuhn and Jacques Rudolph. He is also a graduate of the University of Pretoria. du Plessis is a second cousin of Namibian rugby player Marcel du Plessis. His father Francois du Plessis played rugby in the centre position for Northern Transvaal in the 1980s. du Plessis was featured in the music video for the song "Maak Jou Drome Waar", a duet by AB de Villiers and Ampie du Preez.

du Plessis married his long-time girlfriend Imari Visser in November 2013 at Kleine Zalze. They have two daughters. His sister Rhemi is married to fellow South African international cricketer Hardus Viljoen in December 2019.

He is a Christian and has said, "I know that my purpose is about more than the runs I score on the cricket field. I hope to be able to spend time with people to show them the love of Jesus and see His love shine through them as well."