Former South African national team captain Faf du Plessis has been announced as the new captain of IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore, replacing long-time skipper Virat Kohli.
The franchise made the announcement at an ‘RCBUnbox’ event in Bengaluru today, which was attended by scores of fans.
The event began at 12pm and the fans kept chanting Virat Kohli's name until the announcement. It will be interesting to see if the fans welcome the decision to make the former CSK big-hitter their new captain.
The 37-year-old top order batsman has been a star for Chennai Super Kings and won the trophy with the team last year and in 2018. The Chennai side attempted to retain him during the recent auction but gave up and he was snapped up by RCB.
The Karnataka side bought him for Rs 7 crore. His base price was Rs 2 crore. Ever since his purchase, he has been the firm favourite to replace Kohli.
Virat Kohli was captain of the team since 2013 and stepped down from the post after the 2021 season citing “immense workload”. The announcement came a week after he renounced captaincy of the national T20 team too.
Kohli had led the team to the 2016 final, where Bangalore lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad. RCB reached the playoffs of the 2021 season, but lost to Kolkata Knight Riders in the Eliminator, which was Kohli's last match as captain.
