Legendary Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar called Royal Challengers Bangalore’s decision to appoint Faf du Plessis as captain of the 2022 Indian Premier League as a great decision, adding that the South Africa veteran’s leadership experience will be an asset to the former finalists .
RCB on Saturday called Faf du Plessis as the successor to Virat Kohli, who got the ball rolling for IPL 2022. The South African star, who had spent almost a decade with Chennai Super Kings, was bought by the Bengaluru-based franchise for Rs 7 crore at the IPL 2022 Mega Auction.
It has been speculated that Glenn Maxwell could be considered for the captaincy role after being retained by RCB. However, Bengaluru handed over the reins to du Plessis in a glittering ceremony in the south Indian city on Saturday.
Speaking to Star Sports, Sunil Gavaskar said Faf du Plessis has a wealth of experience leading the national team and highlighted how he brought the players together and propelled the Proteas to the top of world cricket. The 37-year-old had led South Africa in 36 Tests and 39 ODIs between 2013 and 2019.
“Lots of captaining experience, lots of leadership quality that you see in Faf du Plessis. I’m not surprised at all. Remember he advanced South African cricket. There was a time in South African cricket when there was a bit of turmoil. He managed to bring the team together and take South Africa to the top. Clearly a great decision by RCB to hand over the captaincy to Faf du Plessis,” said Gavaskar.
Gavaskar added that Faf du Plessis will try to show the way forward for RCB by continuing to open batting in the IPL. Du Plessis has been one of the most consistent players in IPL so far as the former CSK star has 2935 runs in 100 games in IPL. The South African star was in superb form during his winning run in the IPL 2021 campaign for CSK, scoring 633 runs in 16 games.
“To fill big shoes (absence of AB de Villiers) there is no doubt about that. Faf du Plessis will open the batting. He would want to lead from the front and lead the way. These are exciting times for RCB,” he added.
‘TOTAL KOHLI’S COMMITMENT’
Meanwhile, the big hitter said Virat Kohli will continue to contribute to RCB wholeheartedly, adding that his commitment to a team is unreserved whether he’s captain or not.
“Don’t think for a moment just because Kohli isn’t a captain his performance will drop. We’ve seen him even now in tests being with Rohit Sharma all the time and trying to help him. His involvement is total, he wants his team to win whether he’s captain or not. So that’s what he’s going to do with RCB,” he added.
RCB will open its campaign against the Punjab Kings on March 27, a day after the start of the 2022 IPL between the Chennai Super Kings and the Kolkata Knight Riders.
