The new season of Indian Premiere League (IPL) is going to begin from 21^st March 2025. Ahead of the edition, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) has named its new captain for 2025- Rajat Patidar, one of the key players of the team since three years.

RCB did not retain Faf Du Plessis, who was the team captain from 2022-24. Speculations also did rounds that Virat Kohli might return to captaincy this year, but on contrary the management came over with a new name. The announcement was made in Bengaluru this Thursday at an event that was attended by RCB Team director Mo Bobat, Head Coach Andy Flower and Rajat Patidar.

This is Rajat’s eighth IPL, he joined the franchise in 2021 and over time, has emerged as a key batter for RCB. In the 28 matches he played, Rajat scored 799 runs at a strike rate of 158.85. He was one of the three players who was retained by RCB in November last year.

Coach Andy Flower said, “There is a calmness to Rajat and that will stand Rajat in good stead, especially in the IPL. He is inherently a quiet guy, but he cares about the people around him in the dressing room. As a leader, those qualities are important.”

Talking about Virat Kohli being an option as Captain, Bobat shared, “Both Virat and Rajat were credible captaincy auctions. We didn’t want to go into the auctions with a captaincy option in mind. We wanted an Indian Captain predominantly because this is an Indian competition. Of course, Virat was an option. Virat does not need a captaincy title to lead. Even last year with Faf as captain, we have seen that.”

Further talking about discussions and finding Rajat as the perfect choice, Bobat said, “We spent some time discussing with DK (Dinesh Karthik, batting coach of RCB). We habe multiple conversations with Virat. What stuck about Rajat was that he was very keen on leadership and captaincy. Watching Rajat and how he captained and played for Madhya Pradesh in the domestic circuit was encouraging. We took inputs from Virat. There was compelling evidence that Rajat was a viable option.”

On declared as the Captain, Rajat said, “I had a conversation with Mo last year. I told him before getting the captaincy of RCB, I want to captain a state team. When they told me about this that it could be between Virat and Rajat, I was happy. I can’t express my reaction.”

This will be Rajat’s first stint in IPL as a captain. But he has captained Madhya Pradesh in the 2024-25 season of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (20 overs) and the Vijay Hazare Trophy (50 overs). Madhya Pradesh finished runner up in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where Rajat was the second highest run scorer too with 428 runs in 9 innings. These were his first full time assignments as the Captain.

RCB has reached to the final thrice, but has never been successful in winning the title. They have been to the playoffs in four of the last five seasons, including in 2024. They were however eliminated later on when they reached in the Top 4. Now it would be interesting to see, what Rajat Patidar brings to the field and does something changes for RCB. Is it able to finish its drought after winning the title this year?