How Virat Kohli Inspired Rajat Patidar To Embrace Leadership at RCB? Here's What You Need To Know

Rajat Patidar led RCB to their first IPL trophy in 18 years, etching his name in the history books forever. RCB defeated Punjab Kings by six runs in the IPL 2025 final to lay their hand on that coveted IPL trophy for the first time in IPL history.

How Virat Kohli Helped Rajat Patidar In A Smooth Transition

RCB didn't retain Faf du Plessis, who led the franchise for the last three years. There were a number of contenders for the leadership role, but Patidar was chosen to take over from the former South African and gave a very good account of himself. The captaincy transition was smooth, and Director of Cricket Mo Bobat revealed how Virat Kohli helped Patidar to hit the ground running as the new captain.

In an interaction with Cricbuzz, he said, "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 reality. 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.”

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RCB Had A brilliant IPL 2025 Campaign

Patidar scored 312 runs in 14 innings at an average of 24 and finished as RCB's third-highest run scorer. The 32-year-old helped RCB to finish in the second position with 19 points as they almost had an errorless campaign riding on their brilliant away run. Virat led with the bat while Josh Hazlewood ran riot as he scalped 22 wickets for the side. They finally got the much-needed shift in the summit clash and got the better of the Punjab Kings to finally lift that coveted title.

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