Rajat Patidar has been appointed as the captain of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for the upcoming IPL 2025 season. He replaces Faf du Plessis.
Rajat Patidar, the 31-year-old middle-order batter, has been named the captain of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for the upcoming 2025 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise made the announcement at an event at the KSCA on Thursday, February 13.
Following the release of Faf du Plessis, who captained the team in previous seasons, RCB needed a new captain for the 2025 season. Patidar, who recently led Madhya Pradesh to the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, will be the eighth player to captain RCB.
Patidar’s Reaction to Captaincy
Regarding his appointment as captain, Patidar shared details about the initial conversations: “Last year, I think it was Mo [Bobat, RCB director of cricket] who I spoke to about this. Mo asked me, are you interested in doing captaincy? So I told him, before doing captaincy for RCB, I’d like to have captaincy of the state team. So from there, I got a hint that I could get captaincy. So along with that, I was a little happy that from where I started my IPL career, and now that I look at it, I can feel that journey quite well.”
Patidar’s IPL Journey
Patidar began his IPL career in 2021 and has been with the franchise since then. Known for his ability to handle both pace and spin effectively, he has played in 27 games for RCB, scoring 799 runs with a strike rate of 158.85. He was one of three players retained by RCB before the mega auction, alongside Virat Kohli and Yash Dayal. He was retained for INR 11 Crore.
However, he was released before the 2022 season and went unsold at the auctions. An injury to Luvinth Sisodia provided Patidar with another opportunity as a replacement player. He made a significant impact, scoring 333 runs in 8 innings, including a century, and has since become a key player for the team.
A New Direction for RCB
Patidar’s appointment represents a fresh direction for the Royal Challengers, who have been previously led by Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis. Kohli first captained the team in May 2011, filling in for Daniel Vettori, and took over full-time captaincy in 2012, leading the team until the 2021 season.
Under Kohli’s leadership, RCB reached the playoffs in 2015 and were runners-up in 2016, a season where Kohli scored a record 973 runs. They also made the playoffs in 2020 and 2021. RCB also reached the playoffs in two seasons between 2022 and 2024, with du Plessis as captain after Kohli stepped down. Kohli captained the team in three matches in 2023, standing in for du Plessis, who was recovering from a rib injury and played only as an Impact Player.
What the Coach Thinks
Head coach Andy Flower shared his thoughts on Patidar’s captaincy: “I could speak for quite a long time about Rajat, but I’ve settled on three main things that I thought might be interesting to share. The first one is, there’s a calmness and a simplicity to Rajat that I think will stand in really good stead as a leader and a captain, particularly in the IPL. As we know, the IPL is one of the premier competitions in the world, and there’s pressures involved in that. And I think the calm, simple demeanour that inherently lives within Rajat is going to serve him really well in the early, early of that tournament.
“And his decision-making will be tested, like all of ours is, but I think these qualities will stand him in really good stead. We watched Rajat very closely as he captained Madhya Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament, and we really liked what we saw around those qualities. The second thing I’d say about him, he’s inherently quite a quiet guy, but observing him, he cares about the people around him.
“He cares about the people that he plays with, that he shares a dressing room with. And I think that’s a quality that means that he will instantly have respect and care from other people, and that, as a leader, those qualities are important in that people will follow you and get behind you. And then the third thing that stands out for me about him is that he’s got a stubbornness and a strength and a steeliness about him.
“I’ve seen it myself when I’m trying to coach him in the nets and he won’t listen to me. But you see it in the way that he plays. You see the bravery with which he takes on the game,” added Flower. “And I think that quality within him will be really important for him through the ups and downs, the inevitable ups and downs that come along with playing in the IPL and now stepping up another year into leading a big franchise in the IPL. So I think those qualities are going to stand Rajat in good stead. We recognise them.”
Sources: https://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/133432/rajat-patidar-named-rcb-captain-ahead-of-ipl-2025
https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricket-videos/why-did-rcb-overlook-kohli-as-captain-1473065
https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/virat-kohli-reacts-after-rcb-choose-rajat-patidar-over-him-as-new-captain-for-ipl-2025-i-ve-done-it-for-many-years-101739429251580.html