RCB to announce Faf du Plessis as new captain for IPL 2022

After Virat Kohli stepped down as the captain and AB de Villiers announced his retirement, RCB pushed for a captaincy option in the IPL 2022 auction, picking up Faf du Plessis. Aakash Chopra said will RCB to announce Faf du Plessis as new captain for IPL 2022 soon.

Former India opener Aakash Chopra said on Saturday that he is confident that Faf du Plessis will be announced as the new captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. The South African batter was bought for Rs 7 crore by RCB on Day 1 of the mega auction in Bengaluru.

Royal Challengers Bangalore fended off a bidding war with Chennai Super Kings to buy Faf du Plessis for Rs 7 crore from the list of 10 marquee players. Du Plessis has been one of the most consistent players in the IPL so far as the former CSK star has scored 2935 runs in 100 matches in the IPL. The South Africa star was in superb form for CSK during their victorious run in the IPL 2021 campaign, scoring 633 runs in 16 matches.

“100 percent. In my opinion, he is their captain. They will eventually announce it for sure. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gone that hard for that long because there are other options available,” Aakash Chopra told Star Sports. “They knew, they had their eyes set on Faf that he is our captain. His record is phenomenal.

What he brings is stability and consistency. No international cricket is working in his favour now,” he added. Meanwhile, RCB Director of Cricket Mike Hesson said they are very happy with the purchase of Faf du Plessis and it fits their budget perfectly. After Virat Kohli stepped down as the captain and AB de Villiers announced his retirement.

“We’re very happy, pretty much bang on budget. He’s a proven IPL performer. Faf has done most of the work at the top of the order, we might not change that. Still plenty of work to do. We have a number of young players on our radar. I’m not going to give you too much. We have a few targets,” Hesson said.

RCB are the only second team who are yet to announce their captain apart from Punjab Kings. While the RCB source told InsideSport that there is still time, it has been learnt that the franchise wants to get it done as soon as possible. On that line, Faf is expected to be named as the new captain by next week. Furthermore, the franchise will have a 15-day camp starting mid-March.

Also Read: Big Shock for RCB, Glenn Maxwell will miss IPL 2022

IPL 2022 Royal Challengers Bangalore full squad:

Retained: Virat Kohli (15 Cr), Glenn Maxwell (11 Cr), Mohammed Siraj (7 Cr). RCB Auction buys: Mahipal Lomror (95 L), Finn Allen (80L), Sherfane Rutherford (1 Cr), Jason Behrendorff (75 L), Suyash Prabhudesai (30 L), Chama Milind (25 L), Aneeshwar Gautam (20 L), Karn Sharma (50 L), David Willey (2 Cr), Siddharth Kaul (75 L), Luvnith Sissodia (20 L), Faf du Plessis (7 Cr), Harshal Patel (10.75 Cr), Wanindu Hasaranga (10.75 Cr), Dinesh Karthik (5.5 Cr), Josh Hazlewood (7.75 Cr), Shahbaz Ahamed (2.4 Cr), Anuj Rawat (3.4 Cr), Akash Deep (20 L).