IPL 2022 Auction: Mike Hesson Talks About The Next Captain Of The Royal Challengers Bangalore

The Director of Cricket for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Mike Hesson has revealed some information about the next captain of the franchise after day one of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2022) auction ended with 74 players, out of which 20 were overseas talents being sold with a total of ₹3,88,10,00,000 being spent on players by the 10 franchises.

For the Royal Challengers Bangalore, the most expensive buy was Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga, who was paid INR 10.75 crores. Hasaranga was part of the RCB franchise for the second half of the IPL 2021 season in UAE but played only a couple of games, but his outings for Sri Lanka in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 left everyone impressed.

Apart from Hasaranga, RCB also splurged the same amount of INR 10.75 crores on buying back Harshal Patel, who was the highest wicket-taker for them in IPL 2021 with 32 scalps and won the Purple Cap for most wickets as well.  They also got a couple of wicketkeepers in Dinesh Karthik and Anuj Rawat. Josh Hazlewood was also one of the 11 players whom RCB bought on day one of the auction.

We Have Three Great Leaders Now In The Form Of Maxwell, Virat, And Faf Du Plessis: Mike Hesson On Who Will Captain Royal Challengers Bangalore In IPL 2022

One of the best buys for the RCB team was that of former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis, who was picked for INR 7 crores. With Virat Kohli announcing ahead of the IPL 2021 that will no longer captain the franchise going forward and AB de Villiers announcing the retirement from cricket, RCB were at odds as to who should be named captain of the team.

They had retained Glenn Maxwell for the IPL 2022 edition and many feel that he would be named captain, having led the Punjab Kings previously in the IPL and Melbourne Stars for the past 2 seasons in the Big Bash League.

However, with Faf coming into the picture now, Hesson revealed that they have not discussed captaincy yet and it will be finalized once the IPL 2022 mega auction will finish. But he said that RCB now has three good leaders in Maxwell, Kohli and Du Plessis.

“We have not had that discussion yet. We have three great leaders now in the form of Maxwell, Virat, and Faf du Plessis. We are really happy with those three leaders, we also have Josh Hazlewood as a leader from a bowling point of view. So we are happy with the group, we will make a decision regarding captaincy after the auction,” said Hesson during a virtual press conference on Saturday.

RCB will have a purse of 9.25 crores left one second day of the IPL 2022 auction.

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