Faf Du Plessis has expectedly been named as the new captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore for the upcoming IPL 2022, the 15th edition of the tournament, RCB announced this news at a grand event in Bangalore on Saturday.
Fans have been predicting du Plessis’ appointment as RCB captain with other contenders being Glenn Maxwell, who won’t be available for the initial games, and Dinesh Karthik, who stepped down as KKR’s captain mid-season in 2020 to focus on his batting, but the franchise decided to put their trust in the South African as they wish to end their title drought. RCB are yet to win a single title and have thrice reached the final but faltered at the final hurdle.
The former South African skipper was bought by RCB in the IPL 2022 mega-auction for INR 7 crore, as the franchise managed to stave off competition from the Chennai Super Kings who wanted to have Faf back but were outbid by RCB.
Du Plessis, who was the second-highest run-scorer in IPL 2021 helping CSK to the title, was present at the event on Saturday. He thanked the franchise for handing him the leadership and lauded them for trusting an overseas player for this role.
“Coming in as an outsider, I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity. It’s no small thing to trust an outsider, an overseas player to do the job as a leader. My style in doing that is not going to be ‘my way’. I will rely heavily on amazing experience of our domestic and international players,” Faf said.
“Having been a leader for a while, I’ve been on the journey for creating a culture, it’s close to my heart. First and foremost, my style will be a relational style. To connect with players and start to get to know everyone. The first part of my journey would be to build relationships, try and make sure what are the small things that make each individual tick and how to get the best out of them.”
Fans have been kept waiting for a long while by the franchise for this announcement and were buzzing on social media when it finally happened.
Among many, Chloe-Amanda Bailey, a renowned journalist who is a big fan of the RCB franchise and its talisman player Virat Kohli, was elated with the news of Faf du Plessis being given the captaincy reigns.
Being absolutely stoked with his decision of the franchise, Chloe-Amanda Bailey, who has over 130,000 followers on Twitter, wrote, “And Faf is our captain! (fire emoji) Let’s go RCB 2022!”
Here’s her tweet:
And Faf is our captain! ? Let’s go RCB 2022! #RCBUnbox #RCB
— Chloe-Amanda Bailey (@ChloeAmandaB) March 12, 2022
RCB will begin their IPL 2022 campaign on March 27 against Punjab Kings at the DY Patil stadium.
