Why did RCB let captain Faf du Plessis go? Franchise explains reason

Having led the Royal Challengers Bengaluru franchise for three Indian Premier League seasons from 2022 to 2024, Faf du Plessis was one of the team captains who was not retained his IPL franchise on retention deadline day.
The South African thus joins the likes of Shreyas Iyer (KKR), Rishabh Pant (DC) and KL Rahul (LSG) to enter the upcoming IPL mega auctions.
The decision to let du Plessis go would raise some eyebrows: Over the past two seasons, the RCB captain has shown the different ways that he could be indispensable for the franchise. Last season, he led the team into the IPL playoffs with seven wins in a row at the home stretch of the league phase after the team was stuck at the bottom with six losses in a row. One season before that, IPL 2023 saw du Plessis consently challenge for the Orange Cap after he scored 730 runs from 14 matches at a strike rate of 153.68.
In a video the franchise posted, RCB’s head coach Andy Flower and Director of Cricket Mo Bobat spoke about the decision to let du Plessis go.
“Last year, Faf’s captaincy and leadership — in what was a really tough season, particularly in the first half — was sensational. He was very much a part of leading the revival that took us into the finals… He is a guy that we spent a lot of time discussing. Faf is 40 now and still playing very good cricket. He’s just led his CPL side to victory very recently in the Caribbean and I’m not surprised that,” Flower explained.
Bobat then explained why RCB had let their captain go.
“The decision to not retain Faf is a tricky one because I have nothing but admiration for him as a bloke, as a cricketer, as a leader, and as a captain. Again, I wouldn’t underestimate how big a role he’s played for RCB in the last few years and how much, if he isn’t with us, we’re going to be missing him. So that was a tough decision for us. Obviously, the way that these retention bands and purse are set out, it does make it difficult to get everything you want. Faf, I’m sure, will admit himself, is at the latter part of his career now. And obviously for Andy and I, we have to think really strongly around RCB’s leadership moving forward.”