Three-time IPL runners-up Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have announced their captain for the upcoming IPL 2025 season. Rajat Patidar is the new captain for RCB for the IPL 2025. 

It will be the first time that Rajat Patidar will lead an IPL team. He has led the Madhya Pradesh T20 team in 16 matches, and recently, he led the team to finish as the runners-up in the latest Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy season (2024-25), as his team lost the Final against Mumbai last December.  

Rajat Patidar is a strong name for RCB 

Since 2021, Patidar has played 27 IPL matches, where the right-handed batter has scored 799 runs with an average of 34.73 and a strike rate of 158.84, including one century and seven half-centuries. For RCB, he is a strong name in the top and top middle order. During IPL 2022, when RCB faced Lucknow Super Giants in Kolkata, the right-handed batter hit his maiden IPL century (112* in 54 balls).

In the last IPL season (IPL 2024), Patidar was the third leading run-scorer for RCB with 395 runs in 13 innings with an average of 30.38 and a strike rate of 177.13, including five half-centuries. He was very consistent in that IPL season, while the right-handed batter also smashed 33 sixes in that IPL season, only behind Virat Kohli (38 sixes) in the list of most sixes by RCB batters in the IPL 2024.

Watch Now: RCB’s Special Tribute Video for Captain Rajat Patidar!

Rajat Patidar became the eighth captain for RCB

Patidar became the eighth RCB captain and the fourth Indian among them. As an RCB captain, Patidar is the successor of Faf du Plessis, who wasn't retained in the squad for the upcoming season and ultimately moved to Delhi Capitals during the mega auction. 

Former RCB captains