For the first time since 2013, Virat Kohli will play under another captain in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The only player to represent one franchise in every season of IPL, Kohli led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on a full-time basis from 2013 to 2021.
Even though an IPL trophy continued to elude RCB during those 8 seasons, there was no doubt that Kohli would continue as the captain till he wants. A few days after stepping down as the T20I captain, Kohli also gave up RCB’s captaincy and led them for the final time in the 2nd half of IPL 2021.
He also left Test captaincy and isn’t the ODI captain. Kohli plays under Rohit Sharma and in IPL, he will be playing under the newly-appointed captain, Faf du Plessis.
The former South Africa captain is an IPL veteran and played a key role in Chennai Super Kings’ title wins in 2018 and 2021. Sharing his take on the RCB captaincy, Rajasthan Royals’ spinner R Ashwin opined that it’s a good decision by RCB, but added that Kohli might be back as captain next year.
“Faf is more like towards the end of his IPL career. Maybe, he has two-three years left with him. And they have made him the captain, which is quite a good decision. He brings in a lot of experience and in fact, he has himself said that we can see a bit of MS Dhoni’s touch in his captaincy skills,” Ashwin said on his Youtube channel.
“I feel that since Virat Kohli has undergone a lot of stress as a captain in the last few years, this year will be like a break for him and they might appoint him as a captain next year is my guess.”
Since Kohli doesn’t hold the national captaincy now, it will be interesting to see if he returns as the RCB skipper in the coming years. RCB won 64 and lost 69 matches under Kohli’s captaincy.
The Bengaluru-based franchise will kick off its IPL 2022 campaign in the 2nd game of blockbuster Sunday (March 27) against Punjab Kings. They will be without the services of Glenn Maxwell for their opening game of the season.
