Dale Steyn, who has played a lot of cricket for RCB under Virat Kohli, shared his thoughts on life after Virat Kohli for the Bangalore-based franchise.
Virat Kohli announced that IPL 2021 will be his last season as RCB’s skipper as speculations are doing the rounds on who will be his likely replacement as skipper ahead of IPL 2022, which will see a mega auction taking place.
Dale Steyn: RCB May Appoint KL Rahul As Skipper In Place Of Virat Kohli Who Will Step Down As RCB Skipper
Dale Steyn said keeper opener KL Rahul could be the next captain of RCB in the 15th edition of IPL, weighing in on who could be the next potential candidate to take over the reins from Virat Kohli.
“If RCB is going to look at a long-term contender as captain, they should be looking within their own borders. The name I’ve got is an ex-Bangalore player. It’s KL Rahul. I just have a feeling he is going to return back to Bangalore in next year’s auction,” Dale Steyn told ESPNCricinfo.
KL Rahul, who is currently leading Punjab Kings in IPL 2021, was a part of the RCB set-up in the 2016 IPL and had a pretty good record at the top of the order with Virat Kohli. An unfortunate injury ruled him out of the entire 2017 IPL, and he was surprisingly released by the franchise ahead of 2018.
In that auction, Punjab Kings (formerly KXIP) picked him for ₹11 crores. KL Rahul was appointed as the PBKs skipper in 2020 when the Punjab franchise decided to trade Ravichandran Ashwin.
Dale Steyn Don’t Think AB de Villiers Will Be Assigned Captaincy
A mega auction is all set to take place, with two new teams entering the competition. BCCI has not made any formal announcements but going by the reports, the eight existing franchises in IPL 2021 won’t be allowed to retain more than two players.
Besides KL Rahul, AB de Villiers is another candidate, but when asked about the former South Africa captain’s chances of taking over from Virat Kohli, Dale Steyn said AB de Villiers is a very good leader, but perhaps RCB would want to look at the future and appoint an Indian captain.
“I don’t think AB de Villiers is the right way to go. I think he is a phenomenal player. But he is at the end of his career. I think he is a great leader,” Steyn concluded.
Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar also has named three players who can fit into the role of RCB captain from the next IPL season. The commentator named Kieron Pollard, Suryakumar Yadav, and David Warner as the probable candidates to lead RCB after Kohli. Among the three, he picked Mumbai Indians all-rounder Kieron Pollard as his favourite to lead the RCB.
Royals Challengers Bangalore have not yet tasted a victory in the UAE leg of IPL 2021, and they are placed at the third spot on the points table. The Virat Kohli-led side will lock horns with Mumbai Indians on Sunday, September 26, and RCB will look to make changes by bringing in the likes of Mohammed Azharuddeen, Shahbaz Ahmed, and Kyle Jamieson.
RCB’s predicted playing XI vs MI: Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli (C), AB de Villiers (WK), Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Tim David, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini