With Virat Kohli stepping down as the RCB captain after IPL 2021, the post has been left vacant and the franchise is now set to announce their new skipper on Saturday at the newly launched RCB Bar & Cafe.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore are the last one of the 10 Indian Premier League (IPL) team who are yet to finalise a captain ahead of the 2022 season. The IPL 2022 season will get underway on March 26 with defending champions Chennai Super Kings taking on Kolkata Knight Riders.
The RCB will play their first match on March 27 against Mayank Agarwal-led Punjab Kings. But the question on every fan’s mind is who will lead RCB.
Well, the good news for fans is that the RCB is set to announce their new skipper on Saturday (March 12) at 3:45 pm IST. The franchise will make the announcement during a press conference. RCB will also launch their new jersey on Saturday at the newly launched RCB Bar & Cafe.
Notably, Virat Kohli stepped down as RCB captain after IPL 2021 and since then the post has been left vacant.
Meanwhile, RCB’s new recruit Faf du Plessis is set to be announced as the skipper. Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell was favourite to be named as Kohli’s replacement but RCB have decided to go with Du Plessis.
Maxwell’s unavailability for the first three matches in IPL 2022 went against him. Despite not being named in the white-ball series against Pakistan, Cricket Australia barred all centrally contracted players from competing in the IPL until April 5, meaning the NOC will only be applicable from April 6.
Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis got the nod ahead of Maxwell as a result. The former CSK opener has vast experience of captaincy having led the team in all three formats including in the World Cup. Du Plessis was the top-scorer for MS Dhoni’s CSK in the IPL 2021 final against KKR and was a guaranteed starter in Chennai. Du Plessis will have his place sealed in RCB’s Playing XI as an opener, opening the door to take over the charge.
RCB full squad for IPL 2022:
Royal Challengers Bangalore full squad for IPL 2022: Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj, Faf du Plessis, Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat, Finn Allen, Akash Deep, Josh Hazlewood, Jason Behrendorff, Chama Milind, Karn Sharma, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mahipal Lomror, Sherfane Rutherford, Suyash Prabhudesai, Aneeshwar Gautam, David Willey, Luvnith Sisodia, Siddharth Kaul
RCB Launch New Team Jersey Ahead of IPL 2022 – WATCH
A few hours after announcing their new skipper, Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday unveiled their new jersey which the players will sport in Indian Premier League 2022. The launch took place at an event called ‘RCB Unbox’ in Bengaluru while the first look of the outfit was also shared on franchise’s social media handles.
The franchise took to Twitter on Saturday evening and released a short video in which the team’s new-look jersey, coloured in red and black could be seen. The design inspiration for the Athleisure Collections is inspired by Cosmic Space, bringing forth the energy of galaxies, mirroring the relentless energy of the RCB team.
Earlier, former South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis was named Virat Kohli’s successor – the new captain of RCB.
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 drought 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 an event here.
“Obviously coming in as an outsider, I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity. I have played a lot of IPL cricket. I understand the dynamics and it’s no small thing to trust an outsider which is an overseas player to do the job of the leader,” Du Plessis said.
A four-time Indian premier league winner, the 37-year-old Du Plessis has so far played 100 games, scoring 2935 runs at a strike-rate of 131-plus. He scored 633 runs for CSK in last year’s IPL-winning campaign.
The Indian great Kohli, who is currently playing in the pink-ball Test against Sri Lanka, also congratulated Du Plessis in a recorded video message.
“I couldn’t be happier to pass on the baton to a good friend, someone I’ve known over the years,” Kohli said.
“We’ve been in touch for many years now. He’s one of the few guys I’ve gotten to know a little bit more apart from cricket. My partnership with Faf is going to be exciting. The squad we’ve put together is amazing. Our team looks balanced and strong, and I can’t wait to get started,” he added.
