Former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has hailed Royal Challengers Bangalore for choosing not to name Virat Kohli as captain for IPL 2025. According to him, the franchise did the right thing by not piling extra pressure on their ace player for the 18th season. Although Kohli appeared like an obvious choice to be the skipper once Faf du Plessis was not retained, RCB chose to appoint Rajat Patidar as the skipper. Patidar, having a good run in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, guiding Madhya Pradesh to the final and scoring an 81* against Mumbai, was entrusted with the role.

Manjrekar further added that Kohli as well as Rohit Sharma would do their level best in the new season of the IPL, which begins on March 22 with a Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) encounter at Eden Gardens.

Kohli is IPL’s highest scorer with 8004 runs at an average of 38.66, including eight centuries along with 55 half-centuries, had a phenomenal last season as well with 741 runs at an average of 61.75 and leading RCB into the playoffs. But they were knocked out by Rajasthan Royals in the Eliminator.

“RCB took a very good decision. They didn’t want to put Virat under pressure by giving him the captain’s armband,” Manjrekar was quoted as saying on Star Sports.

“We will see the best of Virat and Rohit in this season of the IPL. They are the two big brands of the Indian cricket,” he added.

The RCB squad of 2025 IPL season has some of key players like Virat Kohli, Liam Livingstone, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Josh Hazlewood and Krunal Pandya. After Rajat Patidar was announced the captain of RCB, Virat Kohli gave him a special message and mentioned about the responsibilities that come with the role. He also praised Patidar for his contribution over the years in RCB.