Virat Kohli "Changed Indian Cricket", Says New Royal Challengers Bangalore Captain Faf du Plessis

Virat Kohli might have relinquished captaincy but his energy is something that Royal Challengers Bangalore team will need at every step of its IPL campaign, newly appointed skipper Faf du Plessis said on Saturday. The four-time IPL winner for CSK was on Saturday unveiled as RCB skipper to take the baton from their longest standing captain, Virat Kohli who took charge ahead of IPL 2013. "Even with him (Kohli) not being the captain, that energy he brings to himself and to the team is hugely important for us. We'll try and use that as best as we can," Du Plessis said in a virtual media interaction, on the sidelines of the RCB captain-launch event.

The former South Africa skipper further said Kohli has brought about transformation to Indian cricket with his captaincy.

"His (Kohli) performance as a cricket player has been probably one of the greatest, so huge respect for what he's done not only with the bat in his hand but also in captaincy perspective, he's changed Indian cricket," Du Plessis said.

"I've seen that happen over time. Playing against India for so long, I could see that shift, his leadership footprint has brought in the Indian team -- a competitive, fit Indian team that was fighting fire with fire as no Indian team ever did before.

"He's got an extremely strong leadership style and that rubs off obviously on players underneath him and that is something that we would still need.

Apart from Kohli, the team has players like Glen Maxwell and Dinesh Karthik, who have captaincy expertise in the franchise cricket.

"So for me, it's easy to pull that knowledge, but the tricky part is to always have clarity. I think that's where teams really do well... So I suppose that's where my responsibility comes in," he said with a