IPL 2019: Should AB de Villiers captain the Royal Challengers Bangalore next season?
The Royal Challengers Bangalore fans will be delighted to hear that their star batsman AB de Villiers has confirmed that he will indeed be available to play for them during next season's Indian Premier League.
This is a positive sign that the South African batsman is still hungry for runs and that his retirement from international cricket has not resulted in him losing his love or his passion for the game. The Royal Challengers Bangalore will only benefit from this as they will be looking to correct another dismal season.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore have been chasing the Indian Premier League title without any success and a lot of questions have been pointed out as to why this is the case. The franchise rang in massive changes during this year's season and even went so far as to drop the big-hitting Chris Gayle from their squad. RCB maintained that this was the correct move in order to restore some balance to a squad which has been filled with destructive batsmen but not much of a bowling attack in recent years.
The move did not pay off and RCB found themselves unable to make the playoffs yet again. Some people have questioned whether the leadership of Virat Kohli is to be blamed and whether a change in the captaincy might result in a change in fortune for the franchise.
Kohli's captaincy has been one of the major talking points in cricket and has become a topic for discussion during the Test series loss against England. India performed rather poorly during this Tst series and only had competitive moments in patches here and there. The batting lineup simply failed to perform and it is clear that the team relied very heavily on Virat Kohli to score the runs.
Kohli did not disappoint in the batting department but there is still a serious need to address the lack of inspiration and purpose which the rest of the batsmen seem to have. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was and still remains one of the most destructive batsmen in cricket but what separates him from Kohli is the way in which he has been able to bring out the best from his squad each time.
Dhoni has been incredibly successful as a captain for the Indian national team as well as for the Chennai Super Kings. He seems to have the captaincy blueprint all sorted out and his team always have a sense of purpose when they play.
A change in captaincy for the Royal Challengers Bangalore might be exactly what they need in order to succeed. The question would then be as to who the replacement should be, and very few cricketing fans will find any replacement better than AB de Villiers.
AB de Villiers was the captain of the South African national side for a period of time and while he may not have won any titles during his run as captain, the South African team certainly did show a very different approach to the game under his leadership. The team played with a real sense of purpose and looked to be one of the most dangerous teams during the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup.
While the RCB squad do respect Kohli, they might gel together better under de Villiers' leadership. A foreign perspective might be exactly what the team needs, and if there is anyone who knows how to play in Indian conditions it will certainly be de Villiers.
Indian fans also absolutely adore de Villiers and this might be another factor which could inspire the team to a win. A fresh approach to the game is what de Villiers will bring and very few RCB fans will deny that a fresh approach is exactly what is needed.