RCB appoints Faf du Plessis as new captain

Bengaluru: The Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday appointed former South Africa national team skipper Faf du Plessis as their new captain for the upcoming edition of Indian Premier League.

Du Plessis, one of the consistent performers for Chennai Super Kings, was an obvious choice after Virat Kohli decided to call time on his leadership role for the franchise after a decade during which their trophy draught didn’t end. He was bought for Rs 7 crore by RCB and is available for the whole season.

Du Plessis was handed over the cap by team’s chairman Prathmesh Mishra and director cricket operations Mike Hesson in a virtual event here.

”I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity. I have played a lot of IPL and understand the dynamics of the game. It’s no small thing to trust an overseas player,” Du Plessis, who gave up South African captaincy across all formats in 2020, said.

”I would rely heavily on the amazing experience of domestic players. We have got great leader of the game in Virat Kohli,” Du Plessis said.

The 37-year-old Du Plessis has so far played 100 games in IPL, scoring 2935 runs at a strike-rate of 131-plus. He scored 633 runs for CSK in last year’s IPL-winning campaign.