Faf du Plessis says one RCB defeat had all of India calling for Kohli, and Kohli’s backing is what carried him
The former RCB captain told Dale Steyn that a message from Kohli before IPL 2022 settled his doubts about taking over, and that he could not have handled three seasons of that pressure alone.
Nov 15, 2026
Faf du Plessis says it took a single defeat as RCB captain for the calls to start. Lose one game for RCB, he said, and “the whole of Bangalore and the whole of India want Virat Kohli to captain”. He was clear it was never personal. “They just want Virat Kohli to captain.”
Du Plessis was talking to Dale Steyn in a conversation ESPNcricinfo published on Sunday. He led RCB for three seasons from 2022, after Kohli gave the job up at the end of IPL 2021, and by his account the man he replaced is the reason he could carry that pressure at all.
A message from the outgoing captain
RCB’s pick of du Plessis at the 2022 auction came with a question from Mike Hesson, their director of cricket at the time: did he want to captain the side? Whatever doubts he had went when Kohli got in touch. “Couldn’t be happier to get a better captain to take over from me,” du Plessis remembers the message saying. “Can’t wait to get you in.”
He says he told Kohli early on that the job could not be done without him. “You can cut my legs off underneath me with one sentence, and I’m done.” With Kohli’s backing he went into that first season with the conviction of an experienced leader. Without it, in his words, he would have walked in terrified.
He did not mind the expectation, and called it “the expectation that you want”. Carrying it alone for three years would have been something else. “It would have been the hardest time to deal with that.”
Two former captains, starting level
The timing suited both of them. Kohli had captained RCB since 2013 and stepped down to manage his workload and focus on his batting. Du Plessis had given up South Africa’s Test and T20I captaincy in February 2020. “I had this fresh perspective that at least I was on the same level with him, now that he’s a player,” he said.
They had only ever played against each other before 2022, but du Plessis says the friendship was immediate. It has also cost him money. Kohli’s watch collection rubbed off, du Plessis is now “the biggest watch guy”, and he calls Kohli “the most expensive relationship of my life”.
The trophy came later
RCB did not keep du Plessis for the 2025 mega auction and he joined Delhi Capitals. Rajat Patidar took over the captaincy, and in June 2025 his side beat Punjab Kings by six runs in Ahmedabad for RCB’s first IPL title, with Kohli making 43 in the final.
Du Plessis never got RCB the trophy. Still, the handover he describes, with Kohli openly backing someone else to lead his team, looks a lot like the arrangement that finally won it under Patidar.