Kohli’s decision to step down as skipper of the franchise came days after he resigned as the Indian captain’s T20I captain.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore have named Faf du Plessis their captain for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season on Saturday.
The captaincy position had become vacant after Virat Kohli resigned after the end of last season. His decision to step down as skipper of the franchise came days after he resigned as captain of the Indian T20I captain ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup.
“This will be my last IPL as RCB captain. I will remain an RCB player until I play my last IPL game. I thank all RCB fans for believing in me and supporting me,” the 32-year-old batter had said at the time.
Kohli was subsequently removed as captain of the Indian ODI team and later also resigned as Test captain.
Du Plessis, a former skipper from South Africa, has a wealth of experience and has led the Proteas in all three formats since 2017 after AB De Villiers’ stint as captain.
Du Plessis becomes the seventh captain in franchise history, following in the footsteps of Rahul Dravid, Kevin Pietersen, Anil Kumble, Daniel Vettori, Kohli and Shane Watson. Kohli has captained 140 games, the most of all players, and has a record of 64 wins, 69 losses, three draws and four no results.
Du Plessis was bought IPL by the Chennai Super Kings in 2011 and made his debut the following season. He played for the MS Dhoni-led side from 2012 to 2015 before moving to the Rising Pune Supergiants in 2016 and 2017 during the Super Kings’ two-year suspension.
He returned to the Super Kings in 2018 and has since won two titles. In this year’s mega auction, the Super Kings went for him but lost to the Royal Challengers after a bidding war that also involved the Delhi Capitals. The Bengaluru franchise bagged the South African batter for Rs 7 crore.
Du Plessis played 100 IPL matches, scoring 2,935 runs at an average of 34.94. He has a strike rate of 131.08.