The writing was on the wall. Virat Kohli has called time on his reign with the Royal Challengers Bangalore as its captain, declaring that he will step down from the position at the conclusion of the team’s campaign in the second leg of the Indian Premier League (Indian T20) 2021 tournament. Royal Challengers Bangalore begin the second leg in the United Arab Emirates at a strong footing of third place in the points table, and would want to send their captain off on the ultimate high of their maiden title victory, which will also be his first.
Kohli has captained Royal Challengers Bangalore for as long as anyone can remember (since 2013). He has been their face, he has led them with vigour and passion, has picked up fights for the team, has scored a record number of runs (most runs in an Indian T20 season: 973 in 2016), and centuries for his team and has even modified his game to start as high as in the opening slot. For what it is worth, Kohli will play his 200th game in Indian T20 for RCB, which will be the first such achievement for any player.
But the young father in Kohli, who already has plenty of workload on his plate given that he also at present leads the Indian cricket team across all three international formats, remains among the top three in the Cricket Rankings for batsmen, feels that he needs to shed some weight off from his shoulders.
Kohli’s decision to stand down as the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore comes a few days after he announced that the upcoming Cricket T20 World Cup 2021 will be his last for India as its leader.
Certainly, it would not have made any sense for Kohli to continue as the captain of an Indian T20 team when he is giving up the similar role from the national team.
Kohli announced his decision on Sunday evening (September 19) during the team’s training session in Abu Dhabi, where they will take on Kolkata Knight Riders in their first match of the second leg of this year’s Indian T20. The announcement means RCB will now be in a huge scramble for picking a captain for the next season onwards.
A captain is somebody who is not just a face of the team, but as a leader he is supposed to drive the team towards glory and success while holding them together in failures. There cannot be any bigger figure than Kohli in the RCB dressing room as their captain, but with him stepping down, it is time to take a look at possible options who can take up the humongous role with the franchise which hasn’t had a title win yet in the Indian T20, but still draws a lot of fanfare from all around the world.
The most interesting aspect here is the fact that Indian T20 2022 will be a 10-team tournament, implying there will be plenty of players released by all franchises while they will be able to retain only three. Several cricketers who have been captains in Indian T20 as well as international cricket will be available for selection, which includes Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith, Ravichandran Ashwin, Suryakumar Yadav, Prithvi Shaw, David Warner and Quinton de Kock to name a few. Let’s take a look at RCB’s options:
1. AB de Villiers
As far as the immediate future is concerned, there cannot be a better name than that of AB de Villiers to replace Kohli as the next RCB captain. De Villiers has been an integral part of the team for a very long time, he has led them from front with the bat on innumerable occasions and has also been a part of the team’s leadership group. He shares a great camaraderie with Kohli, who will still be expected to be involved in the leadership group to some extent. De Villiers has prior experience of leading South Africa in international cricket across formats, and even though age might not be on his side — de Villiers is 37 — he still is a strong contender for RCB captaincy.
2. David Warner
David Warner’s exit as the captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad in the first leg of Indian T20 2021 tournament certainly cascaded his reputation as a captain and a leader, but his overall credentials and experience of winning an Indian T20 title — something which RCB do not have yet — can work in his favour. By the look of it, all has not certainly been well between Warner and SRH leadership management, which might lead to his exit from the franchise that he has been part of for a long time, come Indian T20 2022 auction. Warner remains one of the most successful batsmen in Indian T20 history and in all formats for that matter, has an aggressive attitude and exemplary man-management skills which he showcased in Indian T20 2016 title win with SRH. If RCB decide to go for Warner, it will mean that the team can also easily settle their opening combination with Warner and Kohli teaming up for the role.
3. Aaron Finch / Quinton de Kock / Steve Smith
If the priority for RCB is to bring in a captain who has prior experience and is not an Indian, Australia’s T20 captain and former Royal Challengers Bangalore player Aaron Finch can also be a good call. A hard-working cricketer from Melbourne, Finch is an aggressive batsman and leader who has had a fair amount of success in the Australian cricket team, even though an Cricket trophy has remained elusive. Additionally, it should not matter that RCB had recently released Finch. On the other hand, former South Africa captain and aggressive wicketkeeper-batsman who currently plays for Mumbai Indians, Quinton de Kock can also be a candidate RCB can think about. But in the case of de Kock, given that he gave up South Africa captaincy citing workload, it remains to be seen if this option works out at all or not. Former Australia captain and 2015 World Cup winner Steve Smith, who also has experience of leading teams such as Rajasthan Royals and Rising Pune Supergiant, can also be an option provided Delhi Capitals decide to release him.
4. Ravichandran Ashwin / Ajinkya Rahane
One thing that has become indisputable over the last few months or so is that Ravichandran Ashwin has one of the best cricketing brains in India, and the former Test vice-captain deserves to be playing a leadership role in whichever Indian T20 team he plays for. His current team Delhi Capitals currently have far too many leadership options, and for them, releasing Ashwin should not be a troubling affair. The same can be said for former Rajasthan Royals captain Ajinkya Rahane who too is in the Delhi camp.
5. The band of Indian youngsters
The upcoming Indian T20 2022 auction will certainly make matters very interesting given that a lot of players, who at the moment are looking settled in their respective teams and roles, will be in search of a new camp at the Indian T20 auction. This is likely to include players such as Prithvi Shaw (Delhi Capitals), Devdutt Padikkal, who himself is a first-choice opening batsman at RCB, Shubman Gill at Kolkata Knight Riders and even Suryakumar Yadav, who could be the strongest candidate in this group if RCB decide to look at a young Indian player with leadership credentials. Shaw has led Mumbai in domestic circuit, which is something that can work in his favour. He may have had a troubled road so far in his international career, but there is no denying the fact that he is leadership material and he will land up in such big roles sometime in the future.
If Royal Challengers Bangalore decide to go for an Indian cricketer who has shown all the right signs and has a lot of cricket left in him, the 31-year-old Suryakumar Yadav can be an excellent option. Suryakumar is presently the incumbent captain of the 41-times Ranji Trophy winners Mumbai, and also has significant experience working as a leader of a top team.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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