Faf du Plessis has joined his third franchise, Royal Challengers Bangalore, after being at the Chennai Super Kings since 2011 and in between was at Rising Pune Supergiant for a couple of seasons when CSK were suspended.
RCB, who are yet to win their maiden IPL title, splashed out a sum of 7 crore at the IPL 2022 mega-auction to gain the services of the former South African skipper. Faf du Plessis was the second-highest run-scorer in the IPL last season and was Man of the Match in the final versus KKR.
The 37-year-old recently revealed that Virat Kohli, RCB’s talisman batter and former captain, had welcomed him to the franchise via a text message. Faf acknowledged that he and Kohli had grown closer in the past couple of years.
Speaking to Rupha Ramani on RevSportz, Faf du Plessis said, “I just got a message from Virat welcoming me into the squad which was very nice. I and Virat have got a good relationship over the years.”
Du Plessis also joked that he’d hated when Kohli used to celebrate his wickets, and now is happy that he will play alongside “one of the world’s greatest cricketers” in Kohli at RCB.
“Obviously, we have played a lot of competitive cricket against each other, especially international cricket when I was the captain and he was the captain of India. We’re both very competitive personalities, so it would be nice not to compete against him because I hated the fact when someone got me out Virat was running past me and shouting something in my ears.
“Even through that, especially the last year or two, we started speaking a bit more often and that’s going to be a great opportunity for me to play alongside one of the world’s greatest cricketers we’ve seen. I am looking forward to that,” Faf added.
Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli will a solid opening combo for RCB, who have reached the playoffs in the last couple of seasons but couldn’t proceed till the final. Also, Faf is a premier contender to be RCB’s next captain, with others being Dinesh Karthik and Glenn Maxwell.
RCB squad: Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Shahbaz Ahmed, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Josh Hazlewood, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Suyash Prabhudesai, Luvnith Sisodia, Aneeshwar Gautam, Jason Behrendorff, Karn Sharma, David Willey, Siddarth Kaul, Chama Milind, Mahipal Lomror, Sherfane Rutherford, Finn Allen.
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