IPL 2023: Why Virat Kohli Returned As Captain For Royal Challengers Bangalore Despite Du Plessis Playing,

On Thursday, as the Royal Challengers Bangalore took on the Punjab Kings in an Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 encounter, two stand-in captains arrived in the form of Virat Kohli and Sam Curran. While Kohli stood in for the injured Faf du Plessis, Curran took over as captain in place of Shikhar Dhawan, who missed his franchise’s second consecutive match. After Curran won the toss and chose to bowl first, Kohli was asked why he was wearing the skipper’s hat instead of Du Plessis.

Kohli revealed that Du Plessis is suffering from a rib injury and would be unable to field. As a result, the management decided to play him as an “Impact Player.”

“Faf potentially can’t be fielding today, so he’ll be playing as an impact player, switching with Vyshak. We got to do what we wanted, we would have batted first, the pitch could get slow, some scruff marks will help the bowlers going deep into the game. Taking one game at a time, focussing on our own game, make the most of crunch situations, we haven’t done that so far in the tournament. No other changes for us,” Kohli revealed at the time of the toss.

While Faf will bat with Kohli, when the substitution occurs, it will be Vijaykumar Vyshak who will take his place.

PBKS stand-in skipper Curran, on the other hand, revealed that Liam Livingstone has returned to his side’s starting XI, while Nathan Ellis has also returned to replace Kagiso Rabada.

“We will bowl first, did well in the last game and we’ll take some confidence, conditions will not change a lot. Shikhar is getting closer, but he’ll miss out today. He’s a quality player, but the younger lot will have to shape up, Livingstone is back and we have Ellis back in place of KG,” he said.

Royal Challengers Bangalore Playing XI: Virat Kohli(c), Faf du Plessis, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik(w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Suyash Prabhudessai, Harshal Patel, Wayne Parnell, Mohammed Siraj

Punjab Kings Playing XI: Atharva Taide, Matthew Short, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh

Also Read: From Sarfaraz Khan To Riyan Parag: 5 Biggest Disappointments Of IPL 2023 So Far (cricfiles.com)