Former Team India pacer Ajit Agarkar is of the opinion Virat Kohli should take over the captaincy of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, calling it the “easiest solution” for the franchise, which has failed to win a single title.
Virat Kohli stepped down from the captaincy of RCB after the completion of the 2021 season of IPL. He had been leading the RCB for the last nine editions since he took over the role in 2011.
“If Virat Kohli can take over the captaincy and if he is happy to do it and if he has the energy to do it, I think that will be the easiest solution for them. At the end of the day, we have seen RCB over the years they haven’t invested enough money in making a proper team of 12, 13 or 14 players with enough depth,” said Agarkar on Star Sports show Game Plan: IPL auction special.
Kohli has been retained by the franchise ahead of the IPL 2022 Mega Auction that is set to take place on February 12 and 13 in Bangalore. The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 Player Auction list was released on Tuesday, February 1, with 590 cricketers expected to be auctioned off at the two-day mega auction in Bengaluru.
“It’s always been dependent on the top three, not enough middle order players and if you don’t have the money, you can’t do that again. So, if you break the bank for one player, doesn’t matter how good he is – will win you games but will never win you competitions,” he added.
Speaking on whether it is a level playing field for the two new teams (Lucknow and Ahemdabad )coming into the auction, Agarkar said, “Yes, I think so- I think to a large extent you have got some of the big names like say, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul those sorts of names that you have been able to retain, which was not the case before when the two new teams had come earlier which was a lot harder on those new teams.”
“So, I am not sure if it’s even-stevens at the moment. It’s a good thing but you still have to build now for the future for more teams, older teams are able to only retain their four players which is never easy to say for the likes of Mumbai Indians or some of the stronger teams because they have more than four players that they would have wanted to retain.”
“But yes, it is going to be about who gets the best Indians and who makes the use of that in the auction and eventually build your team around it,” he added.
