Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) will announce their new captain for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 on Thursday, February 13. RCB naming their new captain will be telecasted on Star Sports Network at 11:30 AM IST. After Virat Kohli stepped down as the skipper following the 2021 edition, Faf du Plessis led them in three seasons, winning 21 and losing as many out of 42 games.

In the 2022 auction, RCB roped Du Plessis in for INR 7 crore after a bidding war with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Delhi Capitals (DC). But prior to the 2025 edition, which means that they have to choose a new skipper. Among the ones in the squad, the most experienced is Virat Kohli. But there's a question mark about whether he would take back captaincy.

Kohli took over the captaincy mantle from New Zealand's Daniel Vettori in the 2013 edition and went on to lead them until 2021. Under Kohli, RCB won 66 out of 143 matches and lost 70. Three matches ended in a tie, while four games didn't produce a result. Although he couldn't help RCB win a title, he stepped up with the bat, scoring 4994 runs as captain in 143 matches with five centuries and 37 fifties.

Rajat Patidar for the role?

Apart from Kohli, one player who might be in contention is Rajat Patidar. Patidar has experience of captaining teams in Indian domestic cricket. Under his captaincy, Madhya Pradesh finished as the runners-up in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy 2024. In the final, MP lost to Mumbai by five wickets, but Patidar was stupendous with the bat,

In fact, Patidar became the third-highest run-scorer in the tournament, only behind Mumbai's Ajinkya Rahane. In 10 games, Patidar notched 428 runs at an average of 61.14 and a strike-rate of 186.08. For RCB, Patidar has scored 799 runs from 27 matches with a top score of 112 against Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL 2022 Eliminator at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Last year, RCB recovered with a seven-match winning streak to qualify for the playoffs. But they crashed out after losing to Rajasthan Royals by four wickets in the Eliminator in Ahmedabad. RCB is one of the teams along with the Punjab Kings (PBKS) to have played since the first season, but have not won a title.