Despite having some of the world’s best cricketers in their ranks over the years, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) are yet to win the Indian Premier League (IPL) title.
For the IPL 2022 season, the Bangalore-based franchise has appointed former South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis as captain. Virat Kohli, who relinquished RCB captaincy after last year's IPL, will play only as a specialist batter.
Du Plessis has joined RCB Bangalore with a lot of experience under his belt. He was associated with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) since 2012 and won two titles with the 'Yellow Brigade'.
With just over a week to go for the upcoming IPL season, RCB head coach Sanjay Bangar welcomed Faf du Plessis to the squad and expected the franchise to do "special" things this year.
"You all bring a lot of skill sets along with you, whether you are an experienced player or just starting out. We have full confidence in your abilities. The next couple of days are going to be about easing you into the RCB structure. We are going to do some special things this season. and it is not possible without your contribution," said Bangar in a video shared by RCB on Twitter.
"Good to see Faf coming in, hitting a few balls really making good contact and also players who have been in the IPL circuit like Karn (Sharma) or Siddharth (Kaul), they also turned up well."
Before the IPL 2022 mega-auction, RCB had retained Virat Kohli (Rs 15 crore), Glenn Maxwell (Rs 11 crore), and Mohammed Siraj (Rs 7 crore) while the franchise bought back Harshal Patel (10.75 crore) and Wanindu Hasaranga (10.75 crore) last month.
RCB also secured the services of experienced cricketers like Dinesh Karthik and Josh Hazlewood at the auction.
"It is nice to meet the guys, the ones you have watched on videos, the ones you have seen from afar, to meet with them and sit down and have a coffee with them, talk about the game with them, it is exciting. It is the fresh part about a new group, huge amount of excitement here," Mike Hesson, RCB's Director of Cricket Operations, said.
"The three-day quarantine makes a significant difference in terms of you don't need to start reloading everybody. You can start training right away now, whereas previously it was like easing into it, now we can start with purpose," he further added.
RCB will open their IPL 2022 campaign against Punjab Kings on March 27.
