Rajat Patidar was named the captain of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) ahead of IPL 2025, the franchise announced at a media event in Bengaluru on Thursday.

Retained Indian players Virat Kohli and Patidar were credible captaincy options, RCB Team Director Mo Bobat stated. “Virat was an option – that goes without saying. The fans would have probably leant towards Virat, but we’ve seen a lot of love for Rajat too. Virat doesn’t need a captaincy title to lead. Leadership is one of his strongest instincts,” Bobat said.

In a video message played at the event, Kohli congratulated Patidar and stated that the entire team backed him fully. RCB head coach Andy Flower did not give a definitive answer when asked if Kohli declined a captaincy offer.

Bobat explained that the franchise did not have its “heart set on a captain” going into the auction.

“We did not necessarily want to go into the auction and have our hearts set on a captain because we thought that was quite a dangerous approach. You end up probably overvaluing somebody. We just wanted to recruit as good and as strong a squad as possible, and try and have a number of leadership options,” Bobat said.

At the auction held last year, RCB did not actively pursue the likes of K.L. Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant – all proven skippers.

Asked why RCB did not consider these three experienced players, Bobat said, “All those guys are obviously fantastic players and excellent leaders. (But) We wanted to focus on assembling the right team, rather than just hunting for an individual that might fulfil a leadership role. If we didn’t recruit anybody externally, we were very happy with both Rajat and Virat as options. It was never really a pressure point or a stress point for our decision making to have to hunt for someone as captain.”

Batter Patidar was signed by RCB in 2021. He recently led Madhya Pradesh to the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali (T20) Trophy final. The 31-year-old also led the State team in the Vijay Hazare (50-over) Trophy.

“I had a conversation with Mo last year. I told him that before getting the captaincy of RCB, I want to captain a State team. When they told me that it could be between Virat and me, I was happy,” Patidar said.

“As for my style of captaincy, I’m not very expressive, but at the same time, I’m aware of the match situations. It is important for me to back my players and make feel relaxed and confident,” Patidar said.

Ahead of the 2022 IPL season, Patidar was released from the RCB squad and went unsold at the auctions. An injury to Luvinth Sisodia, however, allowed Patidar to re-enter RCB as a replacement player. This led to an upswing in his fortunes, as Patidar went on to become an integral part of the RCB middle-order.