Less-burdened Kohli could strike hard

RCB have entrusted the captaincy to seasoned South African batsman Du Plessis who has shifted base from another southern franchise, Chennai Super Kings to the Gardens City team

With the IPL trophy eluding their grasp over the past 14 seasons, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will start yet another campaign under new captain Faf du Plessis at the DY Patil Stadium on Sunday.

RCB’s opening game is against another trophy-less team in the cash-rich league, the renamed Punjab Kings (PBKS) who will also be keen to put past disappointments behind and commence the new season on a winning note.

RCB have entrusted the captaincy to seasoned South African batsman Du Plessis who has shifted base from another southern franchise, Chennai Super Kings to the Gardens City team. 

Faf’s brilliant last season 

The South African batsman was in roaring form with the bat last season and had finished second in the leading run-getters list in 2021 (633 runs in 16 games), only two runs behind his then CSK teammate and top run-getter, Ruturaj Gaikwad. 

With Virat Kohli stepping down as skipper and without the services of AB de Villiers in any playing capacity, RCB, would be relying on the vast experience of Du Plessis to guide them through different challenges. RCB who have roped in the vastly experienced Dinesh Karthik to not only keep wickets, but also excel as a finisher of the innings along with the hard-hitting Glenn Maxwell, fifth in the top run-getters list last season with 513.

Kohli is still the face of the franchise and the shedding of the burden of captaincy could just prove to be a masterstroke as he can now fully concentrate on his batting up front and do much better than what he did last season while aggregating 405 runs in 15 matches.

Capable RCB bowling attack

The RCB bowling attack looks capable, if not outright brilliant, with Australia’s metronomic Josh Hazlewood present in the pace department along with Harshal Patel, who had an outstanding 14th season in which he grabbed 32 wickets.

The inclusion of Wanindu Hasaranga of Sri Lanka as the leg-spinning option in place of their regular till last season, Yuzvendra Chahal, is an interesting development. He and left-arm Shahbaz Ahmed are to man the slow bowling section along with Maxwell as the off spinner. 

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