South African veteran Faf du Plessis will lead the Royal Challengers Bangalore side in IPL 2022, which begins on 26 March, the franchise confirmed on Saturday in Bengaluru.
His name was announced at an event called 'RCB Unbox' here on Saturday. The event was also attended by Dinesh Karthik and Harshal Patel.
Du Plessis, who until last year turned out for the Chennai Super Kings, was picked up by RCB for INR 7 crore at the IPL mega auction in February.
Apart from Du Plessis, other options that were being talked about for captaincy were, Australian Glenn Maxwell and India’s Dinesh Karthik.
"I can't be happier for the team and Faf. He is a good friend and we get along very well. Looking forward to a good season," said Kohli, the outgoing captain.
The South African will be the franchise’s seventh captain after Rahul Dravid, Kevin Pietersen, Anil Kumble, Daniel Vettori, Kohli and Shane Watson. Among them, Kohli (2011-2021) captained the team for the longest period, leading them in 140 matches with 64 wins, 69 losses, three ties and four no results, with a win percentage of 48.16.
The South African has been captain in 79 T20 matches previously, with 43 wins, 34 losses, one tie and one no result, with a win percentage of 55.76.
For Du Plessis, this is his first stint as captain in the IPL, but he is not alien to the job and has led several teams in the T20 format, including South Africa and World XI in international cricket. Comilla Victorians, Paarl Rocks, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots and St Lucia Kings.
The South African 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 had been picked up by Chennai Super Kings in the 2011 IPL auction, though he made his IPL debut the next year. He played for CSK from 2012 to 2015 and during the team's two-year period of suspension, he represented Rising Pune Supergiants in 2016 and 2017. Faf returned to the CSK side from 2018 and played with them till 2021, a period in which they won two titles.
RCB begin their IPL 2022 campaign on 27 March against Punjab Kings at the DY Patil stadium in Mumbai.
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