Shane Watson to lead RCB in absence of Kohli, De Villiers

Former Australian cricketer Shane Watson is all set to lead the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The all-rounder has been a part of the RCB roster since the last edition of the tournament. His performances for the franchise were impressive. Albeit he did not get a lot of chances with the bat, Watson was one of the leading wicket takers for the RCB team in IPL 2016.

Now, the team camp has been dented early on in the season even before the tournament has commenced. Their regular skipper Virat Kohli is expected to be out of action for the first few games of the tournament. Amidst this situation, the team head coach Daniel Vettori had earlier announced that AB de Villiers would lead the team in his absence. However, now with even AB de Villiers struggling with a slight niggle, the captaincy baton has been passed to Shane Watson.

Apparently, it was an injury scare that saw AB de Villiers pull out of the finals of the Momentum Cup One Day Trophy – South Africa’s domestic one day tournament recently. It is because of the same injury that AB is being slated to miss out on the first couple of matches for the RCB setup. Royal Challengers Bangalore will feature in the season opener against the defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 5 at Hyderabad.

The franchise owner, Amrit Thomas, confirmed the same noted that Kohli will be with the camp and they hope to see him pass the fitness tests soon. “His presence on field is dependent on him passing the fitness tests and we hope for a strong recovery for him. In the interim, Shane Watson will lead the RCB team as the stand-in captain. Shane has been one of the top performers and a great mentor for the team, making him an ideal choice to lead the team this season till Virat is back on field,” he quoted.

Talking about the captaincy role, Shane Watson is not a new man to the task. He has a handy experience of leading a team in the shortest format of the game and that includes his captaincy stint with the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL history. In the 31 matches that he has played as a captain, he has won 11 matches and lost 17. Two matches have gone down as tied games and one had no result. Clearly, the RCB camp will hope that Watson improves his win percentage in the upcoming fixtures.