After the completion of the retention process of players, the focus of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise shifts to the mega-auction where they have a major task of picking players and finding the right balance. Although no date has been officially announced for the auctions, it is expected to occur later this month or start in January.
Notably, the already existing eight franchises were allowed to retain four players ahead of the auction, and only three teams, including Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), went for three players. The Bangalore-based franchise was the first team that announced the list of retained players in the form of former skipper Virat Kohli, explosive batter Glenn Maxwell and pacer Mohammed Siraj.
Since Kohli will not be a captain anymore, the big question surrounding RCB is who will be their next leader. Speaking about the same, former New Zealand cricketer Daniel Vettori picked his choice to be the next captain of the Challengers.
Vettori went with Australian superstar Maxwell, who shined with the willow in his maiden season for RCB, making 513 runs from 15 games at an average of over 42, including six half-centuries. Vettori reckoned Maxwell would most likely be the ‘heir to Kohli’ as he has experience of captaining Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League (BBL).
“He will be the likely heir to Kohli. He produced the goods last year, and he was an exceptional player for them. He has the experience of captaining the Melbourne Stars. We talked about most teams wanting to find a captain when they retain players,” Vettori said on ESPNCricinfo.
“I think it has happened too often that teams have to figure out a way, know whom to find in the auction, which can cloud your thinking at times. So I do believe that Maxwell will be named captain. It could be just for one season… to see how it goes, but it’s a pretty good stop-gap measure built for the future,” he added.
Vettori observed the Kohli and Maxwell have a lot of similarities, and hence the former RCB skipper would love to see someone like Maxi leading the team.
“I think that there is a reward for performance. I’m sure Kohli had a huge say in this. He wanted to set the way to allow someone that he didn’t really interact with to come in and lead the team. So I can see Kohli and Maxwell being in good spirits. They have been aggressive on the field and have similar demeanours. I believe that it would have played a part. We can speculate a little, but it seems like the likely scenario,” Vettori added further.
