"Virat Kohli didn’t want to captain RCB.." Jitesh Sharma reveals why Rajat Patidar was named captain

Rajat Patidar will captain RCB in the IPL 2025 season.

Senior batter Virat Kohli does not want to lead Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL), according to wicket-keeper Jitesh Sharma.

Before the 2025 mega-auction, RCB let go of Faf du Plessis, leaving them without a captaincy choice for the upcoming season. Rajat Patidar, who has been a member of the team since 2021, was given the captaincy position by the franchise.

Jitesh claimed that he had a sneaking suspicion that Rajat would be named the team’s captain, but that the RCB social media post confirmed it.

“I got to know about Rajat Patidar becoming the captain when everyone else got to know. But when you have been around the game for a while, you understand the flow of things. Virat bhai did not want to captain the side,” Jitesh Sharma said on the CricXtasy podcast.

The RCB paid an amount of Rs 11 crores to acquire the wicket-keeper at the mega auction. Before the 2025 mega-auction, Jitesh was released by his former team, the Punjab Kings. The lower-order batter’s price quickly skyrocketed to Rs 7 crores due to intense bidding for his services. Later, PBKS used the RTM card, but RCB placed a higher bid and acquired him.

Jitesh Sharma reveals the reason behind Virat Kohli’s refusal to captain RCB

Virat Kohli had taken over the RCB captaincy in 2013 from Daniel Vettori. He captained the side from 2013 to 2021 IPL seasons. He led in 143 games, winning 66 and losing 70 games. Kohli led RCB to the IPL final in the 2016 edition.

Jitesh Sharma explained his statement about Virat Kohli not wanting to captain the RCB franchise anymore.

“I don’t know why he did not want to captain. I am not on the management side of things; when I am, I will let you know. But he has not been captaining in the last 2-3 years, so it felt that he would not do it this year as well. So, I think Rajat was the best option,” he added.

PBKS wanted to bring Jitesh Sharma back and used the RTM card as well, but RCB desperately wanted to fill the void left by Dinesh Karthik and paid INR 11 crore for the Vidarbha keeper.

In addition to his responsibilities as a keeper-batter, Jitesh stated that he would like to assist Rajat in making judgments on the field as part of his possible role in the team.

“Rajat definitely deserves the captaincy. He has given his services to RCB for so many years. I have played a lot of cricket with Rajat. I would definitely help him with the captaincy,” concluded Jitesh.

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