Quitting captaincy may unburden Virat Kohli the batter but the focus will still remain on the maestro in Royal Challengers Bangalore's IPL-15 opener against Punjab Kings here on Sunday.
For, it will be the first time Kohli will not be leading RCB in nearly a decade, turning out only as a player, instead. Relinquishing captaincy, however, will in no way take away any attention from Kohli, who will look to rediscover his glorious touch and power the franchise to a maiden title triumph in the 2022 edition of the event.
Both RCB and PBKS will have new captains at the helm in Faf du Plessis and Mayank Agarwal respectively, but Kohli will certainly attract a lot of attention now that he is not entrusted with leading the side, something which he last experienced in 2012.
Still eying their maiden title triumphs, both teams will be eager to make a strong statement first up.
Seasoned South African du Plessis, who was acquired by RCB for Rs 7 crore in the IPL mega auction last month, will captain the side even as it continues its search for its first-ever title, having failed in the previous 14 outings. At 37, du Plessis doesn't have many IPL seasons left in him and he would be too eager to guide the team to an elusive triumph.
While they will have a new captain with fresh ideas, RCB will have to grapple with the absence of Australian duo of Glenn Maxwell and Josh Hazlewood in the team's first few matches. Maxwell is away for his marriage while Hazlewood is in Pakistan with the Test side and will miss three matches at least, so is pacer Jason Behrendorff.
But RCB still have some good options in players like Sherfane Rutherford, Finn Allen etc. A lot of focus will be on Sri Lankan all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga and Dinesh Karthik.
On the other hand, the Kings will miss the services of Jonny Bairstow, who is in the West Indies with the England Test side in their first game, and also Kagiso Rabada as he has just finished his ODI engagement for South Africa against Bangladesh.
In the absence of Rabada their bowling attack looks quite thin and they would hope that back-up players deliver the goods against a strong RCB batting unit.