"We had good senior players like DK and Maxwell..."- Mike Hesson reveals why Du Plessis was appointed RCB Captain

Virat Kohli stepped down from the captaincy of Royal Challengers Bangalore after the 2021 season. The franchise then picked former South African captain Faf du Plessis in the 2022 auction and appointed him as a captain.

Du Plessis had been with the Chennai Super Kings since the 2011 season and was one of the prime reasons for their win in 2021. But CSK released him ahead of the auction, and RCB roped in the South African superstar at a price of INR 7 crore.

And now, RCB's Director of Cricket Operations Mike Hesson has revealed why the management decided to appoint Du Plessis as the captain of the team despite having some other options in Glenn Maxwell or Dinesh Karthik. Notably, Du Plessis led the team well and guided them to the playoffs.

He was also the highest-run getter in 2022 for the RCB, with 463 runs in 16 innings and three half-centuries. He is also the leading run-scorer in the ongoing tournament and holding the "Orange Cap" right now. In a discussion on the RCB podcast, Hesson said that they wanted a player who has the respect of everyone on the team.

Hesson said, as quoted by The Indian Express, "We wanted somebody who had captained at an international level before ideally, somebody that had respect from amongst the Indian players and the international players. Somebody that we had a lot of good senior players Virat, Maxi (Glenn Maxwell) DK (Dinesh Karthik) that we were looking to either bring in or retain. Somebody that had a really good record in the IPL in recent years and Faf clearly had that."

Furthermore, he said that it was not an easy decision to make, but Faf was someone who could work really well with the seniors like Virat, DK, and Maxwell and also perform at the same time. RCB hasn't started well in the 2023, as they are sitting in 8th place with two wins and three losses in the tournament so far.