Former Australia spinner Brad Hogg has said that that Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will have to add someone else from the mega auction as a replacement for Virat Kohli as the skipper of the team. On Sunday, Kohli announced he would be stepping down as RCB captain at the end of the IPL season. Earlier, he had announced that he would quit as India’s T20I captain after the T20 World Cup this year as well.
Discussing RCB’s next captain on his YouTube channel, Hogg stated that no one from the current set-up would be an ideal choice. The Australian explained: “RCB will have to recruit someone next year to come in and captain the franchise. I don’t think there will be anyone within their group. AB de Villiers, we don’t know how long he’s going to go on for. You just don’t want someone to go in there and patch up that particular space if he is only going to be there for a short term.”
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He continued: “What you want to do is recruit someone for the long term, someone who is going to be at the helm and the core for RCB. They are going to have to recruit well from the auction. They will be after someone who can lead this team for the next 7-9 years, like Virat Kohli has. You want that stability at the top of the tree.”
Brad Hogg again shared: “If you look at all the successful teams, Rohit Sharma has captained Mumbai Indians for a very long time and they have had a lot of success. MSD (Dhoni) with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) as well as with (Stephen) Fleming as the coach. They have been at the helm for a very long time. No one in RCB right now can take that role of captain.”
While he was asked about the players he would like to see in the camp ahead of the mega auction, Brad Hogg picked Virat Kohli, Kyle Jamieson, Mohammed Siraj and Devdutt Padikkal. As per him, retaining a New Zealand player is a safe bet because they hardly opt out of an IPL season. However, the rules on IPL player retention hasn’t come out yet but the franchises could retain 2-4 players and would get to use the RTM options also.
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“I think RCB are going to keep Virat Kohli and, I wouldn’t be surprised if RCB try and retain Kyle Jamieson. We will see how he goes for the rest of the season. He is a big recruit. They will try and keep Siraj as well and Padikkal. You want to keep your core Indian players there. So in Kohli and Siraj, you have got two quality Indian players there. I’ll use the RTM (Right to Match) on Padikkal or probably on Jamieson as that key all-rounder. If you want to make an investment in a particular overseas player, it is better to go with a New Zealander. They are the more likely ones to not pull out of an IPL season,” Brad Hogg concluded.
