Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) has done quite well in the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year. While they have already qualified for the playoffs, Kohli has announced that he won’t be the captain of the team next season. However, Kohli will be with the team as a batsman only. And, former Indian player Ashish Nehra has said that young Devdutt Padikkal could fill his shoes.
However, they have quite a few experienced players in their kitty, namely AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, Yajuvendra Chahal as well. While talking to Cricbuzz on this issue, Ashish Nehra said, “Devdutt Padikkal has the ability to lead the Royal Challengers Bangalore team effectively. If the team is looking for a player as the captain for a long time, then they will have to hand over the captaincy to Padikkal.”
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The veteran has also added that Devdutt Padikkal seems to be the only best option in his eyes, considering he has been doing well in domestic cricket as well as young too. Padikkal has so far amassed 822 runs in 26 IPL matches where his best score was an unbeaten 101.
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However, RCB has lost their last game against SunRisers Hyderabad where Devdutt Padikkal failed to do well. After the loss, Virat Kohli said: “I don’t think so, the intent has to be to try and get it done as soon as possible. We don’t want to stretch these games too deep, but having lost a couple of early wickets, rebuilding was key. Maxi’s [Maxwell] run-out was the game-changing moment in terms of momentum and Maxi was in the zone to get a couple of big overs. With AB [de Villiers] you are never out of the game, but it is about making sure that the guy who’s in flow is on strike in the crucial moments. We had a good first half with the ball but not as effective with the bat chasing that down. Shahbaz [Ahmed] played a crucial knock at that stage, it is a game of small margins, I think Sunrisers held their nerve and bowled out their last few deliveries pretty well to not allow us to get us those big hits we were looking for.”
