Former India opener Aakash Chopra hailed the leadership abilities of Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Faf du Plessis and said he puts the team in front of him. The Bangalore-based franchise signed Du Plessis last season in the IPL 2022 mega auction as he also took over the captaincy charge of the franchise after Virat Kohli relinquished the post.
Du Plessis was an integral part of the Chennai Super Kings set-up for years but the retention limitation forced them to release him ahead of IPL 2022 auction and RCB went after him all guns blazing and signed him for a whopping INR 7 crore.
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The Proteas batter led RCB to the playoffs of IPL 2023 where they suffered a defeat to Rajasthan Royals and were knocked out after Qualifier 2.
Chopra suggested that Du Plessis is the only overseas player whose stature has been the same over the years and the decision to make him the captain has worked in RCB’s favour.
“This team has now got the habit of making the playoffs. They are doing extremely well for the last two-three years because their selections have been very good. They chose a solid captain, went after Faf du Plessis. He is the only non-international active player whose stature has not gone down at all,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
The veteran opener said it was not an easy task to find a replacement for Kohli as captain but Du Plessis commands the respect of the players.
“They went with the thinking that they need a captain who commands respect. He is that type of player who keeps the team ahead of himself. It was not easy to find a captain when Kohli gave up captaincy. It is not easy at all to find a captain for a team that already has a slightly alpha-male culture,” he added.
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Chopra also said that RCB have a solid middle-order and if works well then they have a chance to do wonders this season.
“When I see the overall team, I find it good. In the last two-three years, the success they got is because the middle order has started coming to the party – whether it is Glenn Maxwell, Rajat Patidar or Dinesh Karthik the finisher. If Maxwell, Patidar, Karthik, Mahipal Lomror and Shahbaz Ahmed do well, this team will do well this year as well. I don’t think it would matter what happens at the top. It will be a thumbs up if Faf and Kohli have a very good season,” he added.
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