New Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Rajat Patidar spilt the beans on when he was apprised of being in the captaincy race alongside Virat Kohli. The MP batter was named the skipper for the side ahead of IPL 2025 on Thursday. Patidar was a frontrunner for the role alongside the ex-RCB skipper and Krunal Pandya.
When Patidar knew he was in race with Kohli to become RCB skipper
Speaking at the press conference during the unveiling of the new RCB captain, Rajat revealed that he was approached by team director Mo Babot about the topic during IPL 2024. He revealed that he was happy that he started his IPL journey with the franchise and that he first wanted to lead his domestic side – Madhya Pradesh – before taking up the responsibility in IPL. Patidar revealed that he was very happy to know that he was in the race with Kohli to become the new RCB skipper.
“I had a discussion with Mo last year when he asked me If I am interested in leading RCB. I was a little happy that this is the place where I started my IPL journey. When I got to know that either Virat or I will lead the side, I was really happy. I can’t express the feelings in words,” Patidar said.
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Patidar will now take over the reins from Faf du Plessis as RCB’s captain in IPL 2025. Kohli had relinquished captaincy in 2022 following which the South African took over. With du Plessis moving to DC ahead of IPL 2025, RCB were forced to find a new captain ahead of the next season.
Previously, reports had stated that Kohli was hesitant to take up captaincy once again despite having discussions with the team management. As a result, RCB decided to name Patidar as their new captain. The batter led MP to the finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2024, emerging as the second highest run-scorer in the tournament. He joined RCB in 2022 as an injury replacement for Luvnith Sisodia and went on to become one of their top retentions ahead of IPL 2024.
