New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) Former South African cricketer and ex-Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Faf du Plessis has opened up on leading the RCB franchise in the Indian Premier League and his relationship with talisman Virat Kohli.

Du Plessis was picked by the RCB ahead of the IPL 2022 season and was straightaway handed over the captaincy as Kohli had relinquished the role after the 2021 season to focus on his batting and manage his workload.

The then RCB director of cricket, Mike Hesson, had asked the Proteas batter, "Would you want to captain RCB?" Du Plessis revealed that any hesitation was gone after he received a welcoming message from Kohli.

"Virat (Kohli) sends me a message, and he's like, listen, couldn't be happier to get a better captain to take over from me. Can't wait to get you in," Du Plessis told fellow former South African cricketer Dale Steyn in Cricinfo's 'Cricketers on Cricketers' show. "There was always respect, but in an instant I felt accepted to step into the shoes."

Du Plessis added that Kohli's support was the difference between "walking into that season crapping myself versus the conviction of I'm experienced, I know I'm a good leader, and I've got the support of the guy."

He revealed that he had a discussion with Kohli and told him that captaining RCB won't be possible without his support and was thankful of the backing the former RCB skipper gave him during his three years of leading the franchise. He knew that losing a game or two, the whole of Bengaluru and India would want Virat back.

"I had a conversation with him (Kohli) like, first of all, this job is not possible without you. Your support, if I don't have it, I'm gonna fail 100%. Dramatically. Because it's impossible without your support. You can cut my legs off underneath me with one sentence, and I'm done."

"Let me tell you as a captain, if you lose two games - not even, if you lose one game for RCB - the whole of Bangalore and the whole of India want Virat Kohli to captain," du Plessis said. "And it's not because they don't like you or me. They just want Virat Kohli to captain. So anything that doesn't happen that's a win comes down to: Virat Kohli must be captain," he told Steyn further.

He stated that had Kohli not supported him, it would have been very tough. "Imagine if I didn't have that support, how I would have felt in those three years. It would have been the hardest time to deal with that," he said.

Du Plessis had also stepped down as South Africa captain in 2020. "At that stage, I was a player coming from captaining someone and then not captaining the team anymore. So I had this fresh perspective that at least I was on the same level with him, now that he's a player."

"I had his support - more than unconditional support - from day one. He just had my back all the time. I would say we (had) always played against each other, but instantly we felt like we had a very, very good friendship. There's no context here to it. There's no background. It was just, like, straight away," he added.

--IANS

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