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Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have made a tremendous comeback in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 with five consecutive wins. Amidst RCB's winning run, former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh wants the franchise to give the captaincy back to Virat Kohli who has been leading the race of orange cap.
With six wins from 13 games and one game to go, RCB are still alive in playoff race even though there are a few permutations and combinations involved. Harbhajan has credited Kohli for RCB's turnaround. The former Indian skipper has scored 661 runs from 13 innings at an average of 66.10 including one century and five fifties.
"If they don't qualify, they should look to get some Indian guy. Why not bring Virat Kohli back as captain? As Dhoni has a lot of impact in Chennai, Virat Kohli is a big leader, he knows the kind of cricket they need to play," Harbhajan said in Star Sports' Press Room.
"Now they are playing with lot of aggression, lot of intent and that is what Virat Kohli brings. I would like to see Virat Kohli leading the side going forward."
Kohli gave up RCB’s captaincy in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. RCB roped in former South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis and appointed him as captain. Under Du Plessis' captaincy, RCB have won 20 out of 40 games. In 2022, they qualified for the playoffs whereas in the previous edition they finished sixth on the points table.
RCB’s qualification scenario
RCB will go up against Ruturaj Gaikwad-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. They need to score 200 or more runs and beat CSK by 18 runs to take their net run rate (NRR) past the five-time champions. They will also have a clear picture about their qualification as Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) would have played their remaining two games by then. They will hope that LSG lose at least one of the two matches. Also, they would want that Delhi Capitals (DC) don’t beat LSG by a huge margin.
Overseas stars leave RCB camp
Ahead of the four-T20I series against Pakistan, England’s T20 World Cup 2024 bound players Will Jacks and Reece Topley have left the IPL. While Topley wasn't a regular, RCB are likely to replace Jacks with Glenn Maxwell. However, the Australian has managed to score just 36 runs from eight games with his high score being 36.
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