The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have announced their captain for the 2025 season of the tournament. After a long wait, the fans got to know about the skipper of their favorite team, and he is none other than, Rajat Patidar. Speculations were made around their former skipper and the poster boy, Virat Kohli getting back the captaincy role. However, Kohli showed no interest in captaincy role and as the franchise let go of their skipper from season, the South African batter Faf du Plessis, the franchise had to do a lot of brainstorming on deciding who will lead the side. Rajat Patidar, who was retained by the franchise for ₹11 crore, seemed to be the most logical option as he has been with the franchise or quite a few years now and he has also done well as a captain for Madhya Pradesh in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024. Taking all these factors into consideration, the franchise announced Rajat Patidar as their skipper for the IPL 2025 season. The next captain of RCB is… Many greats of the game have carved a rich captaincy heritage for RCB, and it’s now time for this focused, fearless and fierce competitor to lead us to glory! This calmness under pressure and ability to take on challenges, as he’s shown us in the… pic.twitter.com/rPY2AdG1p5 — Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) February 13, 2025 Rajat Patidar's Journey with Royal Challengers Bengaluru in IPL has been roller-coaster. Patidar was a part of the RCB franchise in IPL 2021, but he was released ahead of the 2022 season and also went unsold ahead of the auction. However, the destiny had other plans and in the midway through the IPL 2022 season, Rajat Patidar was called in as a replacement. Since then, Patidar did not look back as the right-handed batter performed extraordinarily well with the franchise which was the reason behind him being retained for INR 11 Crore ahead of the IPL 2025 and later being appointed as the captain of RCB for the upcoming season. The franchise made this decision keeping the long-term goals in mind and this was an expected move after Kohli declined to lead the side. Also Read | Gambhir Explains Varun Chakravarthy’s Inclusion in Champions Trophy Rajat Patidar's Captaincy Record in T20s Matches Won Win Rate 16 12 75% Rajat Patidar has become the eighth captain (fourth Indian) of RCB in Indian Premier League (IPL). There were very few options with the franchise apart from Kohli. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Krunal Pandya and Rajat Patidar were the only possible options who could lead the franchise. However, Patidar's leadership in the SMAT 2024 for Madhya Pradesh impressed the management. He led Madhya Pradesh to the final of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024 and he did deliver with the bat as well.