Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Faf du Plessis was appointed the vice-captain of the Delhi Capitals on Monday, the franchise announced ahead of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign.
The former South Africa captain will be Axar Patel’s deputy in the Delhi-based franchise. Axar was named DC captain on Friday.
“I am very excited. Delhi has been great and the boys have been fantastic. Definitely, I feel happy and ready,” the right-handed batter said in a video uploaded by the franchise.
The 40-year-old had led RCB in the last three seasons of the IPL. However, he was not retained by RCB ahead of the mega auction last year. He was bought by Delhi Capitals for Rs 2 crore in the accelerated round of the bidding process after he did not get any takers in the opening round.
https://twitter.com/DelhiCapitals/status/1901547692079374435
The decision of RCB to let du Plessis go raised some eyebrows: Over the past two seasons, the then RCB captain has shown the different ways that he could be indispensable for the franchise. Last season, he led the team into the IPL playoffs with seven wins in a row at the home stretch of the league phase after the team was stuck at the bottom with six losses in a row.
One season before that, IPL 2023 saw du Plessis consistently challenge for the Orange Cap after he scored 730 runs from 14 matches at a strike rate of 153.68.
In a video the franchise posted, RCB’s head coach Andy Flower and Director of Cricket Mo Bobat had spoken about the decision to let du Plessis go.
“The decision to not retain Faf is a tricky one because I have nothing but admiration for him as a bloke, as a cricketer, as a leader, and as a captain. Again, I wouldn’t underestimate how big a role he’s played for RCB in the last few years and how much, if he isn’t with us, we’re going to be missing him. So that was a tough decision for us. Obviously, the way that these retention bands and purse are set out, it does make it difficult to get everything you want. Faf, I’m sure, will admit himself, is at the latter part of his career now. And obviously for Andy and I, we have to think really strongly around RCB’s leadership moving forward,” Bobat had said.
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