Former England captain Kevin Pietersen has questioned whether batsman Faf du Plessis will enjoy an extended stay in the Proteas Test XI without the captaincy.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock succeeded Du Plessis as ODI captain earlier this year. This week, Du Plessis resigned from the Test and T20I captaincy.

‘Players generally don’t last long once they become a soldier again after being the sergeant, but that’s up to him,’ Pietersen wrote in a Betway column.

‘They took the white-ball captaincy off him, so automatically he thought it was maybe time to rethink his position as Test captain, too. How long he’ll last as a player, it’s hard to say.’

READ: Du Plessis quits Test and T20I captaincy

Du Plessis weathered a poor run of form in the recent three-one Test series defeat by England. He has not scored a century in the longest format of the international game in over a year.

‘Maybe now he is released from the captaincy he will get back to playing his way, having a clear mind and watching the ball,’ added Pietersen.

‘In the last couple of years he hasn’t been watching the ball, he’s been too engrossed and engulfed in politics and what’s happening off the field in South African cricket, so it was inevitable that his form was going to suffer.’

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