South Africa star Faf du Plessis is all excited to lead Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, and will use tips he picked up from Captain Cool Mahendra Singh Dhoni during his stint with Chennai Super Kings in his new job.

The former South African skipper, who was recruited by RCB for Rs 7 crore in the IPL mega auction last month, was a key member of the Dhoni-led four-time IPL champions since 2012.

“I was lucky enough to play under MS Dhoni for an extremely long time,” the 37-year-old said in an interview on the IPL website.

Ahead of their IPL opener against Kolkata Knight Riders, Dhoni on Thursday handed over the CSK reins to India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.

Effusive in his praise for Dhoni, the World Cup-winning former India captain, Du Plessis further said: “I got to see very closely how his brain works. You know how things operate under him which was once again very fortunate for me.”

Moving over to RCB, Du Plessis, a three-time IPL winner with CSK, will have his task cut out to clinch the elusive title for his new franchise.

Leadership group

But Du Plessis is unfazed by the expectations and said he would benefit from his core ‘leadership group’ that has the likes of Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and Dinesh Karthik.

“Virat was the captain of this country for an extremely long time. I mean, a very good leader for Indian cricket and for RCB... So that experience and wisdom and knowledge that comes with that is second to none.

“And then the same thing (with) Maxi (Glenn Maxwell). He has captained a lot of games, especially in T20 cricket. So his brain and his ideas are very valuable and the same with Dinesh Karthik.

“I’m very lucky that we’ve got a great strong leadership group within the team. I’m the kind of leader that relies on a lot of other people.”