A Gun Opener, Most Energetic Player on the field, Established Captain - Joining RCB to hunt the title this time

Team Trophyless RCB is entering into a fa(f)bulous phase to hunt the title.

Will it be fertile or futile? Whether RCB will benefit in this new escalated epoch or will this turn over a new leaf episode will end up as usual with winning the hearts alone???

Just like a student who is writing several pages for a two-mark question, RCB had a grant event for a day-long to reveal their captain, Faf du Plessis. As the question paper had leaked out already, that was not a top-secret and everyone knew that he will be the successor of Virat Kohli. But behind the scenes, some RCB and Kohli's fans silently chanted for the King to ascend to the throne again which did not happen.

Finally, in the three-cornered contest, du Plessis's rich captainship experience in the international arena and the aura that was created by him both as a batsman and fielder overplayed Dinesh Karthik's superlative domestic captainship experience and Maxwell's extravagant abilities. Yes! RCB has got their brand new South African skipper. But, what will be the pros and cons of this particular occurrence?

Well! Faf du Plessis' captainship skills need no introduction. Right from February 2013, till 2020, du Plessis had led the South African team across different formats. He captained the rainbow nation in 115 international matches which includes 36 tests, 39 one day internationals and 40 T20s. In tests and ODIs, his winning percentage was 50 and 72 respectively. Especially, in T20s, he held a winning percentage of 63 as a decent record. South Africa set foot on the field in three ICC events (T20 world cups in 2014 and 2016, 50 overs world cups in 2019)under him. 2019's experience is the bitter part to be forgotten, but progress to the semis in 2014 is worth remembering.

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We also cannot put away the fact that he has extensive experience in playing and captaining for franchises all around the world like Paarl Rocks in Mzansi Super League, Comilla Victorians in Bangladesh Premier League and also in different teams in Caribbean Premier League too. So if that is also taken into account, the number of T20 matches which were captained by him rise to 73 and the winning percentage descends to 55 percentage. Above all, how he took the average Paarl rocks team to the championship in the year 2019 season is unmatchable.

So his track record as captain is written with glories and fame, even though it does not include numerous pinnacles. But the tale goes on still.

Other than the captainship skills, his 2935 runs in 100 IPL matches with a notable average of 34.94, at a strike rate of 131.09 speaks voluminously for him. He finished the previous IPL season as the second leading run taker (633 runs) and proved that this horse is still in the race for younkers. As new edition Johnty Rhodes, his fielding is quite phenomenal. As he is retired from international cricket, he can serve the team throughout the tournament for the next few seasons.

On the other side, we have RCB, whose penance for a trophy is continuing for 14 long years. They have met their woes and worries throughout this journey to find a new ball bowler and a good opener, liquidating middle-order weakness and so on. But every time, RCB have been looking for the best ways and means to correct their mistakes and emerge stronger. Especially Kohli- Mike Hesson were doing magic with the team. But at the end of the day, trophy matters. This time, they want to fill the void with fame. That is what they want du Plessis to do for them.

Even though it has more positive sides, one cannot turn a blind eye to du Plessis' age factor. It was not so long ago when du Plessis sang "We are the Chennai boys" along with Bravo during the toss in the 2021 CPL. The love of CSK fans for him is limitless. Recently, one of the CSK fans went to the extent of setting a mega cut out at his home, for du Plessis, even after he joined RCB. Faf du Plessis' affinity towards CSK and Dhoni are also familiar. But even after that, CSK did not fight for this warrior, in the auction, with heart out, just because of this age factor. Faf du Plessis is 37 already, and one may not know how long he will be playing in IPL, or at least how long he is capable of playing extraordinarily like earlier. That is the one negative point that stands against him.

In the same way, it is also not guaranteed that he can bring a trophy for the team, of course, no one can. As he said, even if he cannot fill the vacuum created by AB de Villiers, at least as a gun opener, he can utilise the power plays and set the base, on which RCB's score can be built up and that is the ultimate game plan of RCB, right now.

On the bright spot, this will reduce the pressure on Kohli and will trigger that arrow to go forward with even more velocity. Kohli and Dinesh Karthik's assistance and support also can help him to accelerate RCB.

One thing is for sure, not just the jersey, even the approach and attitude of RCB may change due to the entry of du Plessis into the captainship room. So far, Kohli was injecting aggressiveness and attacking playing style into the veins of RCB. du Plessis is not that kind of player and his outlook on the team will take a 180° angle change with how Kohli was handling things. Faf du Plessis recently said that his captainship style is similar to Dhoni's methodology. So, in general, that is going to change the atmosphere and the mood over there, but one has to wait and watch whether that will bring a balance to the team or it will disturb the stability.

Even after progressing to the playoffs 7 times and finishing as runner ups thrice, the troll or mockery RCB is digesting for years together is enormous. So, this time, du Plessis - Sanjay Bankar couplet will try to change the fortunes of the team, with that perspective.

If not for the trolls, at least for the Royal fans who are the human form of loyalty, they will wish to raise the trophy.

The era of du Plessis in RCB begins and let us see whether it will be Faf(b)ulous or run off the mill.