Rajat Patidar Not Being Credited For Winning RCB's Maiden IPL Title As Skipper Highlights The Dark Side Of Fans' Obsession With Star Worship

IPL 2025: The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) ended their 18-year-old jinx by winning their maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) title. The Rajat Patidar-led side defeated Shreyas Iyer's Punjab to clinch the title by 6 runs. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru became the seventh franchise after Rajasthan Royals (2008), Deccan Chargers (2009), Chennai Super Kings (2010, 2011, 2018, 2021, and 2023), Mumbai Indians (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020), Sunrisers Hyderabad (2016), and the Gujarat Titans (2022) to win the coveted IPL title.

Rajat Patidar, the skipper of Royal Challengers Bengaluru, went past his predecessors Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli and became the first captain to deliver a title for the franchise. But unfortunately, for the fans of RCB, they might be repeating the same mistake that the KKR fans did back in 2024 after Shreyas Iyer won them their third title. A captain leaving his franchise the next year after delivering a title is something that is unheard of, but everybody saw it happening with the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024.

The Dark Side Of Superstar Worship Culture

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Interestingly, Royal Challengers Bengaluru's title win has been completely built around Virat Kohli. Undoubtedly, Virat Kohli is Royal Challengers Bengaluru's biggest star and is in many ways synonymous with the franchise. Kohli has served the franchise for eighteen long years (2008-2025) and had led them for ten long years (2012-2021) in the past. Several questions were asked when Royal Challengers Bengaluru appointed Rajat Patidar as the skipper of RCB.

Popular theories were floating around that Virat Kohli might be appointed as RCB's skipper, but the franchise shocked everybody by appointing Patidar as the skipper. Many cricket fans endorsed the fact that Patidar has been living in Virat Kohli's shadows and has not been imposing enough on the field, but that does not take away the fact from him that he has been stellar as the skipper of RCB.

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Rajat Patidar's Lackluster Show As A Batter Of RCB

In the 15 IPL games that Rajat Patidar has played this season, he has scored a total of 312 runs at an average of 24.00. The RCB skipper scored all these runs with a strike rate of 143.78, and he had only two fifties to his name.

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