"Lot of people can get a bit intimidated by the ex-captain" - Mike Hesson on why RCB appointed Faf du Plessis as skipper 

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Director of Cricket, Mike Hesson, has opened up on their thought process of appointing South African veteran Faf du Plessis as the captain of the team and successor to Virat Kohli.

Before the start of the second half of IPL 2021, Kohli had announced that he wouldn't be captaining RCB from the season that followed. However, he ensured that he would play for RCB until the end of his IPL playing career. That also meant the franchise had the task of finding somebody to be Kohli's able successor.

Speaking on the RCB podcast, Mike Hesson asserted that the Royal Challengers needed to find someone who would instantly earn everyone's respect in the dressing room, including Virat Kohli.

He said:

"It is difficult to come into a group that has a former captain. We wanted someone who would get instant respect from the group and also from Virat. A lot of people can get a bit intimidated by the ex-captain being there and is unconfident to make his own decisions."

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Faf du Plessis had a good IPL record of late: Mike Hesson

Faf du Plessis came into the mega auction on the back of a fantastic season with the bat for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), helping them win the title in IPL 2021. Hesson felt that and the fact that he had captained South Africa before made RCB believe he was the right person to take the mantle of captaincy.

On this, he stated:

"We wanted someone who had the respect of international as well as Indian players. At RCB we wanted to hit the ground running so we wanted someone who had a good IPL record of late and Faf had that. We also wanted someone who would work with players like Maxwell and DK, and drive the team forward. And Faf had ticked all those boxes."

Faf du Plessis led RCB to a third-place finish in his first season as captain and will be keen to try and win them their maiden IPL title this year.