IPL 2025: Revealed- Why Rajat Patidar was chosen as RCB captain over Virat Kohli
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) mentor Dinesh Karthik has mentioned why they picked Rajat Patidar as the captain for the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025). He mentioned that the batter's leadership skills for Madhya Pradesh forced them to pick him as leader.
RCB recently made a bombshell announcement ahead of the IPL 2025. Young batter Rajat Patidar was appointed as captain of the team and the decision came as a big surprise. This was because many expected Virat Kohli to take over the leadership of the team for the next few seasons.
Several reports claimed that Virat Kohli will be taking over the leadership of the RCB in the IPL 2025 as the batter himself has expressed his desire to take over the captaincy. However, this wasn't the case as Rajat Patidar got a nod ahead of him for the role.
Rajat Patidar has been an integral part of the RCB for the last few seasons. Apart from Virat Kohli, he has been the only India batter in the franchise who has looked solid. He also has been getting the backing of management which in itself is a big thing for him.
The way he led Madhya Pradesh during the domestic season was fantastic - Dinesh Karthik on making Rajat Patidar as RCB skipper for IPL 2025
With Rajat Patidar being picked over Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, who is the mentor of RCB, said that they backed Patidar because they were impressed with the way he led Madhya Pradesh in the domestic circuit. He also added that they wanted to give captaincy to someone who is future as it is a fresh cycle. Speaking on Cricbuzz, he said:
“The way he led Madhya Pradesh during the domestic season was fantastic. A lot of good things players had to say about the way he led the team. So that really encouraged us, and we wanted a new leader considering it’s a fresh group of players and it’s going to be a fresh cycle as well. These two things prompted us to make Rajat our captain."
Rajat Patidar showed great leadership skills during the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 for Madhya Pradesh. He led from from the front as scored 428 runs with a strike rate of 186.08 and an average of 61.14 in 10 matches, taking his team to the final.