Royal Challengers Bengaluru are set to announce their captain for IPL 2025 on Thursday in Bengaluru.
The name of the new captain could not be confirmed, but the frontrunner for the position is likely to be Virat Kohli, who had led the franchise from 2013 to 2021 before stepping down from the role. He had also stood in as captain for three matches last season.
Another option is middle-order batter Rajat Patidar, who has been with RCB since 2021 and was one of their three retained players ahead of the mega auction in November. Patidar, 31, was captain of his state team Madhya Pradesh in the 2024-25 seasons of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy.
RCB need a new captain after not retaining Faf du Plessis, who led them for three years from 2021 to 2024. They did not bid for du Plessis, 40, at the auction and he was sold to Delhi Capitals at base price.
Du Plessis in turn had taken over the captaincy from Kohli, who ended his nine-season stint as RCB captain in 2021. To date, he has led RCB in 143 matches in the IPL, the second highest for a captain after MS Dhoni. His record stands at 68 wins and 70 losses with four no-results. While RCB are yet to win the IPL, Kohli led them to the final in 2016, a season in which he scored a record 973 runs. He was the top-scorer in IPL 2024 too; his 741 runs at a strike rate of 154.69 playing an important role in RCB’s late dash into the playoffs where they lost the Eliminator.
Apart from RCB, Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals are the other teams yet to name their captains for the upcoming season. Shreyas Iyer, KKR’s captain last year, will lead Punjab Kings this year, while the former DC captain Rishabh Pant is now leading Lucknow Super Giants.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo