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The Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction finally concluded on Sunday night. While fans are still making sense of some of the action that happened at the two-day event and busy forming their favourite team's starting XI and probable combinations, at least three teams at this moment have not yet announced who will be their captain for the inaugural season. One of them is the Royal Challengers Bangalore who are yet to decide who will lead the team after Virat Kohli decided to step down as the leader at the conclusion of IPL 2021.
Here in this article, we look at 3 potential candidates who can lead the Bangalore side in a bid to lead them to their maiden title.
1. Glenn Maxwell
The 'Big Show' Glenn Maxwell is one of the top candidates to lead RCB in IPL 2022. Not only does he have leadership experience, having led the Punjab Kings in IPL 2017 as well as the Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League, he is also a guaranteed name in Playing XI after being retained by the team prior to the auctions.
However, the only thing that is a matter of concern with the all-rounder is his consistency. IPL 2021 was the first time after 7 years that he breached the 500-run mark in a season. But having said that, Maxi has looked at home in RCB and could definitely be considered for the top job by the franchise.
Another factor that works in his favour is that he is 33-year-old and is far from his end especially in T20 franchise cricket but whether the management has the faith in him is something that we shall find out in due course.
2. Faf du Plessis
Another candidate who can be announced as the new skipper of the Royal Challengers Bangalore is South Africa's Faf du Plessis. The Proteas batter may not be active in international cricket but has been in tremendous form in franchise cricket all over the world. In addition, he has already established himself as an IPL great after a successful stint with the Chennai Super Kings. Du Plessis narrowly missed out on being the leading run-scorer in IPL 2021 and finished with 633 runs in 16 matches.
Du Plessis also has a rich captaincy experience having led South Africa in the past which might allow him to make better decisions in pressure situations. However, a thing that works against him is the fact that he is already 37-year-old.
Will he be in prime fitness and form until the next mega auction is another decision that the management will need to answer before making a final call. Du Plessis was roped in by RCB for Rs 7 crore on Saturday.
3. Dinesh Karthik
Yet another captaincy candidate but perhaps the least likely to be made the captain among the three is Dinesh Karthik. DK has been in great batting form whenever he has turned up for Tamil Nadu in white-ball cricket. Apart from leading his state team, he had a stint as the skipper of the Kolkata Knight Riders so he definitely knows a thing or two about captaincy.
However, Karthik did not taste much success with KKR which was one of the reasons he was sacked midway as the skipper. While the decision by the management was itself debatable, Karthik is also currently aged 36 and isn't playing a lot of cricket which might temp the decision-makers to look away from him.
However, unlike the other two options, Karthik is an Indian pick and seems to be an automated pick in the XI as their preferred wicketkeeper. DK was included by RCB for Rs 5.5 crore.
