Rajat Patidar scripted his name in the history books as he finally broke RCB's deadlock and helped earn its first-ever Indian Premier League (IPL) title in the 2025 campaign.

Patidar ended up doing what big names like Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis and others couldn't do over the years. RCB had a memorable campaign in the IPL 2025 under Patidar's captaincy. While he had a few other experienced players like Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, etc. to consult with, Patidar rose to the occasion despite being doubted at the start of the campaign.

As soon as the need for a new skipper arrived at RCB with the departure of Du Plessis, Virat's name emerged at the top, but the franchise gave the all-important opportunity to Patidar. RCB's Director of Cricket, Mo Bobat, recalled the bold captaincy call, explaining why the franchise trusted Patidar, while also admitting that the decision to name Virat the new skipper was also considered.

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"The options we went into the auction with were that we could obviously buy back Faf if we wanted to have continuity. That was one option. Another option could be that we could go back to Virat. He's captained before, one of the best leaders that India's ever had. I'm pretty sure if we asked him to do it, he would have gone, 'yeah, let's give this a go' because he cares so much about the franchise," said Bobat as he hinted that the franchise could've asked Virat to take up captaincy again, and he would've said yes, but they decided against going with this option.

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"The other internal retention option we had was Rajat, and I was sure that we were going to retain him. So, I spoke to him when we were in Dharamsala. I think he was a little bit surprised because he thought we might just talk about his batting or something. I remember asking him whether he had any aspirations to captain or lead, and he was probably a little bit surprised to hear the question, but he said, Yes, he does like the idea of leadership and captaincy," Bobat further said.


Virat Kohli on Rajat Patidar taking up RCB captaincy

Virat raised his hands in full support for Patidar to take up the captaincy role after head coach Andy Flower and Bobar came to him with such a thought.

"Andy and I went and visited Virat. He was playing in Ahmedabad for India at the time. We told him what we were thinking, and he really liked the idea as well. Virat has a huge amount of respect for Rajat as a player, as a person. He knows that Rajat understands the franchise and understands what it takes to be an RCB player, which can be deemed as pressure for others, but these guys are there, and they take it in their stride. So, he was confident that Rajat was accustomed to that.

"And also, we spoke with Virat, and we talked about the fact that Rajat was going to be new to captaincy. He was going to need all of our help. That's the real"ity. And Virat said, 'Look, 100%, I'm there to help. It's in all of our interests if Rajat succeeds. Let's give this a go.' So, it's brilliant to have Virat's blessing and his approval because he's an important person and player in our environment," he said.