Former India pacer Ajit Agarkar has said that the best thing that can happen to Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) captaincy conundrum for IPL 2022 will be Virat Kohli taking over the captaincy once more, despite stepping down from the role after IPL 2021 season.
The RCB franchise has retained Virat Kohli, as their second retention ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction, with Glenn Maxwell being their first retention and Mohammed Siraj being their third and final retention. With Kohli leaving captaincy after the last IPL season, the three-time finalists will be in the hunt for a captain in the upcoming IPL 2022 mega auction.
Talking about the same issue, Agarkar said on the Star Sports show Game Plan: IPL auction special: "If Virat Kohli can take over the captaincy and if he is happy to do it and if he has the energy to do it, I think that will be the easiest solution for them. At the end of the day, we have seen RCB over the years they haven't invested enough money in making a proper team of 12, 13 or 14 players with enough depth.”
"It's always been dependent on the top three, not enough middle order players and if you don't have the money, you can't do that again. So, if you break the bank for one player, doesn't matter how good he is - will win you games but will never win you competitions," he added.
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The IPL 2022 mega auction will happen on February 12-13 in Bengaluru and will feature 590 players. Apart from the eight original franchises, the two new teams in Ahmedabad and Lucknow will also bid for players.
Speaking on whether it is a level playing field for the two new teams (Lucknow and Ahmedabad) coming into the auction, Agarkar said: "Yes, I think so- I think to a large extent you have got some of the big names like say, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul those sorts of names that you have been able to retain, which was not the case before when the two new teams had come earlier which was a lot harder on those new teams."
"So, I am not sure if it's even-stevens at the moment. It's a good thing but you still have to build now for the future for more teams, older teams are able to only retain their four players which is never easy to say for the likes of Mumbai Indians or some of the stronger teams because they have more than four players that they would have wanted to retain."
The Ahmedabad franchise picked Hardik Pandya as their captain, apart from signing Rashid Khan and Shubman Gill ahead of the auction. The Lucknow Super Giants, meanwhile, named KL Rahul as their captain, and also signed Marcus Stoinis and Ravi Bishnoi to build their core.
"But yes, it is going to be about who gets the best Indians and who makes the use of that in the auction and eventually build your team around it," Agarkar signed off.
(ANI inputs)
