Before the beginning of the 2025 IPL, well-RCB-apparelled Rajab Patidar was finally announced as the new captain of Royal Challengers Bengaluru-RCB on Thursday.
In a surprise announcement, the 25-year-old young star was selected RCB skipper against Kohli.
Kohli served as the RCB captain between 2013 and 2021, when he stepped down with the arrival of Faf du Plessis.
But RCB released Du Plessis before the mega auction, who captained between 2022 and 2024. Du Plessis has moved to the Delhi Capitals this season.
Kohli has a fine record during his time as RCB captain although he could not land them the title.
The 36-year-old captain of RCB is the second-most prolonged in history after the chief MS Dhoni of the Chennai Super Kings leading 143 matches.
RCB is led by Kohli, where he has managed 68 wins, with the remaining toward defeats and four no-results.
The next captain of RCB is…
— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) February 13, 2025
Many greats of the game have carved a rich captaincy heritage for RCB, and it’s now time for this focused, fearless and fierce competitor to lead us to glory! This calmness under pressure and ability to take on challenges, as he’s shown us in the… pic.twitter.com/rPY2AdG1p5
Kohli led his franchise to a final in 2016 and reached the summit with 973 runs—so far, a record-high for a batter in IPL history within a single season.
In IPL itself 2024, Kohli emerged as the leading run-scorer with 741 runs at a strike rate of 154.
On the flip side, prior to the auction, Patidar was one of the retained players at RCB and has made a decision to lead the Madhya Pradesh team at the very competitive Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy matches.
31-year-old Patidar was extending leadership to three-year-old Madhya Pradesh when they suffered a five-wicket defeat to Mumbai in the SMAT final.
He made 428 runs in 10 matches at an average of 61 and at a strike rate of 186.08 and became the second-highest run-getter, behind Ajinkya Rahane.
RCB FULL SQUAD –
Retained: Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Yash Dayal
Bought At Auction: Liam Livingstone, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Rasikh Dar Salam, Suyash Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Nuwan Thushara, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethell, Devdutt Padikkal, Swastik Chikara, Lungi Ngidi, Abhinandan Singh, Mohit Rathee
