Faf du Plessis will become the seventh person to captain the Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL. Virat Kohli might have relinquished captaincy but his energy is something that RCB will need at every step of its IPL campaign, newly appointed skipper Faf du Plessis said on Saturday.
The four-time IPL winner for CSK was on Saturday unveiled as RCB skipper to take the baton from their longest-standing captain, Virat Kohli who took charge ahead of IPL 2013.
Faf du Plessis: Even Without Virat Kohli As Captain, His Energy Provided To RCB Is Hugely Beneficial
Faf du Plessis has the opportunity to be the first captain to win an IPL trophy for RCB as they have made it to the finals thrice in 2009, 2011, and 2016 editions but have failed to win the title.
“Even with him (Kohli) not being the captain, that energy he brings to himself and to the team is hugely important for us. We’ll try and use that as best as we can,” Faf du Plessis said on the sidelines of the RCB captain-launch event.
Faf du Plessis said Virat Kohli has brought about transformation to Indian cricket with his captaincy.
“His (Kohli) performance as a cricket player has been probably one of the greatest, so huge respect for what he’s done not only with the bat in his hand but also in captaincy perspective, he’s changed Indian cricket,” he said.
“His (Kohli) leadership footprint has brought in the Indian team — a competitive, fit Indian team that was fighting fire with fire as no Indian team ever did before. He’s got an extremely strong leadership style and that rubs off obviously on players underneath him and that is something that we would still need.”
Apart from Virat Kohli, the team has players like Glenn Maxwell and Dinesh Karthik, who have captaincy expertise in franchise cricket.
“So for me, it’s easy to pull that knowledge, but the tricky part is to always have clarity. I think that’s where teams really do well… So I suppose that’s where my responsibility comes in,” he said.
In IPL 2022 mega auction, Faf du Plessis was bought by the Bangalore franchise for Rs 7 crore. The South African has played for Chennai Super Kings and Rising Pune Supergiants. He has played 100 matches (93 innings) so far in the IPL, scoring 2935 runs at an average of 34.94 and a strike rate of 131.08, with 22 half-centuries. In the last four seasons of the IPL, he has scored 1640 runs in 47 innings, with 633 of those runs coming in 2021.
Faf du Plessis Reckons Huge Shoes To Fill In After AB de Villiers Retired From IPL
The team will sorely miss the 360-degree AB de Villiers, one of the greatest batters of the modern-day game as he announced his retirement from all forms of the game last year in November just ahead of the IPL 2022 retention.
“It’s huge shoes to fill in. There is no cricketer in the world that will try to fill in AB’s shoes. I wouldn’t even try, he’s an absolute great of the game,” Faf du Plessis said of his former South African teammate.
Alongside the overwhelming 20,014 international runs in his repertoire, AB de Villiers also managed to rack up 4522 runs from 157 matches that he has played for RCB.
“He mentioned throughout his career that it’d be nice if I could join him yet RCB so the timing is obviously not great now that he has decided to retire. Unfortunately, we won’t be playing together. But it’s nice that one friend replaces another,” he added.
“In terms of the middle order, we’ve got DK who’s obviously a nice power player and an experienced finisher as well, likely to play that role. But yeah, there will never be another ABD and if there is one, I’d love to find him and love to watch and play,” Mike Hesson said.
On his captaincy philosophy, Faf du Plessis said he would look to build a ‘relational’ style in his captaincy and would look to form a bond with his teammates.
“For me, first and foremost, my style would be a relational style. It will be to connect with a player and start to get to know everyone. As I said, I come in from the outside, so the first part of how I suppose the journey for me would be to build relationships,” Du Plessis said.
Asked about his goals, he said: ” I’m very competitive. I played the game to win. As a batsman, I want to be one of the best performing batters every time I go out there. There’s an end goal but I focus more on the process and actually looking at them,” he concluded.
Virat Kohli has captained the side in most matches – 140 matches with 64 wins, 69 losses, three ties and four no results, with a win percentage of 48.16.