Former India openers Sunil Gavaskar and Aakash Chopra have opined on who will become the next captain of the IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for the upcoming IPL 2022 season.
The RCB team picked many players in the IPL 2022 auction with an aim of finding their new skipper after Virat Kohli stepped down after the IPL 2021 edition. In the auction, RCB found two names in Faf du Plessis and Dinesh Karthik, who could become the next captain of the team in IPL 2022.
Sunil Gavaskar, in conversation with Sports Tak, felt that RCB should give the responsibility to Glenn Maxwell, who was retained ahead of the auction along with Kohli and Mohammed Siraj.
IPL 2022: RCB likely retained Glenn Maxwell with a view to make him captain- Daniel Vettori
“I think if Glenn Maxwell is given the responsibility then a different kind of Maxwell will be seen in IPL. Last year he batted brilliantly probably keeping the mega auction in mind, but he was retained after that, which was good, I guess, for him.
We have often seen that players who bat well but score 30-40 runs quickly and get out without getting the job done- especially when suppose the team requires 70 or 80 runs more. But when these same players are given a responsibility then they played well showing better shot selection. So if Maxwell is given the captaincy, he will score more and play better," he said.
On the other hand, Aakash Chopra, on Star Sports’ IPL 2022 auction special show, opined that RCB should make Faf du Plessis as their new captain, saying that they went after him for that reason only instead of going after any other top-order batsmen, who were available in the market.
“100 percent. In my opinion, he is their captain. They will eventually announce it for sure. Otherwise, they wouldn't have gone that hard for that long because there are other options available. If you are looking only at openers, there were options and there will be more in the likes of Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy. They did not go for someone like a Warner or Quinton de Kock.
They knew, they had their eyes set on Faf that he is our captain. His record is phenomenal. What he brings are stability and consistency. No international cricket is working in his favor now,” Chopra said.
