With Virat Kohli stepping down from captaincy of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) last season, there have been various speculations regarding who will lead the fan-favourite franchise in the upcoming season that will feature 10 teams. With too many free agents ahead of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 mega auctions, the latest to the list of RCB’s potential captains is former Delhi Capitals (DC) skipper Shreyas Iyer.
“Post Virat Kohli quitting the RCB captaincy, RCB are really interested in having Iyer as their next captain. Expect them to bid aggressively for the Mumbaikar in next month’s auction in Bangalore,” a source was quoted as saying by TOI.
In addition, the source also said that Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) will also be competing with RCB over Iyer in next month’s auctions. KKR let go of Eoin Morgan as he was not on the list of retained players despite taking the Kolkata-based franchise to IPL 2021 final. On the other hand, Rahul wanted to try his luck in auctions and wasn’t retained by Punjab-based franchise. Meanwhile, there are also reports that Rahul will be leading the new Lucknow-based franchise. Both Lucknow and Ahmedabad franchises are yet to announce their list of three players before mega auction.
Iyer was not retained by DC as the franchise continued with Rishabh Pant as captain. Captain stepped into the captaincy role after shoulder injury ruled Iyer out of the first phase of IPL which was postponed midway due to Covid-19 outbreak in few camps.
Iyer has a good captaincy record despite taking over midway through a poor season for DC. He has led DC in 41 matches and won 18 out of them. He helped DC qualify for their first ever final in 2020 season which they lost against Mumbai Indians (MI). In 2020, Iyer was the fourth-highest run-scorer of the season with 519 runs at an average of 34.60.
The Mumbai batter has age on his side too as the RCB franchise will look for a long-term captain after sticking with Kohli for a long time. Like DC, RCB are yet to win their maiden IPL title. In the last season, RCB were knocked out of the tournament by KKR in the eliminator.
It is to be noted that all three franchise who are reported to be interested in Iyer's services as captains have had a history of going big in the auctions. Few examples can be Pat Cummins, Jhye Richardson, Chris Morris and others.
