With the new Indian Premier League (IPL) season inching closer with each passing day, teams are finalising every single detail as they gear up for the two-month-long extravaganza. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) named Faf du Plessis as their skipper at the RCB unbox event on Saturday.
Du Plessis will take over the top job from Virat Kohli who dropped a big bombshell last year as he announced his decision to step down as the captain of the franchise.
RCB nonetheless retained Kohli, and also named all-rounder Glenn Maxwell and pacer Mohammed Siraj as their retention picks ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction.
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They had a relatively successful auction, adding the likes of Faf du Plessis, and experienced Indian campaigner Dinesh Karthik in the mega auction. With the likes of Maxwell, Du Plessis, Karthik etc all in contention for the captaincy duties, there was quite a speculation as to whom will take over the responsibility from Virat Kohli.
RCB's Director of Cricket Mike Hesson revealed why the franchise opted to hand over the top job to Faf du Plessis over others.
"It was a little bit of both. We obviously had Maxwell and Virat to have huge captaincy experience that we retained. We felt within our leadership group we wanted to expand on that and also Harshal Patel as well. Who we wanted to buy back. So it was more about growing our leadership group and carrying on from that," said Hesson at the RCB unbox event.
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The IPL rules allow teams to field just four foreigners, hence, many franchises refrain from naming an overseas captain, but Hesson insisted that Du Plessis will play each and every game for RCB, such is his talent.
"When you look to decide who's the most suitable candidate for the role, you don't necessarily decide whether they're an Indian player or an overseas player. Sure the seven Indians and there's four overseas -- we know the maths. We just want the best candidate for the job. And there's no doubt in our mind that Faf is the guy for that," he added.
