RCB Bold diaries: Everyone’s ready to go, everyone’s really excited for the first match: Faf du Plessis

The day is finally here when the Royal Challengers begin their IPL 2022 campaign against the Punjab Kings. On the eve of the season opener, all was calm in the camp as we spoke to captain Faf du Plessis to get his thoughts ahead of our first game of the season against the Punjab Kings.

What’s the mood in the camp like? Faf du Plessis on a personal note says, “Very excited.” Continuing on about the squad, he says, “We’ve had a good preparation. Everyone’s ready to go, everyone’s really excited for the first match. The last two days have been quite hard to make sure that we get all the work done, and then we’re ready to go.”

The squad has slowly assembled together at Mumbai over the last couple of weeks. How difficult is it to get the team together in such a short time, the RCB captain explains, “You have to understand the way different people are. Obviously the international players, they’ve just come off a Test match. They play a lot of cricket, so the most important thing for them is to rest, freshen up, get away from cricket. Then it’s just about getting everyone together and really enjoying each other’s company.”

There will be three players missing from the RCB setup who are yet to join up with the team - Glenn Maxwell, Josh Hazlewood, and Jason Behrendorff. Will that have a major impact on the first game? Apart from stating the obvious that they’re very good players, Faf du Plessis gave further insights into the team structure. “The big thing for me this season, and the real focus for all of us is to make sure we spread that belief right throughout the team. So we don’t have to rely on one or two or three players in the campaign,” Faf said.

Asked who he’s looking forward to playing with the most amongst our exciting young talent, Faf du Plessis had a couple of interesting names. “Anuj, I’m looking forward to that. He’s an exciting, young left-hander. And then Akash (Deep) as well. I think for someone that’s brand new, there’s something there. I like working with the younger, raw talent that’s there. And put the experience over their talent and see how it goes,” the captain concluded.

Faf du Plessis himself will be taking the field for the first time as a captain in the IPL. Punjab Kings, 7:30 PM on a Sunday evening, DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai. Let the games begin!