Who is Rajat Patidar? Appointed New RCB Captain for IPL 2025

Rajat Patidar has recently been named as the captain of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for the forthcoming IPL 2025 season, which will be starting on March 21, 2025. This announcement is a drastic change in RCB's leadership, as he replaces Faf du Plessis, who led the team from 2022 to 2024.

Early Career and IPL Journey

Born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, Patidar played his first IPL game in 2021 but started with modesty, featuring in only four games during the year. He rejoined RCB later in the 2022 season as a substitute for Luvnith Sisodia and made a statement of sorts with an impressive unbeaten score of 112 runs against the Lucknow Super Giants in the Eliminator game. In his IPL career, he has appeared in 28 games and has scored 799 runs at a strike rate of 158.85.

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Domestic Success

Before his captaincy stint at RCB, Patidar was the captain of Madhya Pradesh in several domestic competitions. He took the state side to the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy finals and was the top performer, scoring 428 runs in nine matches in that competition. His leadership abilities were brought to the fore during these tournaments, which helped RCB decide to make him captain even though he was relatively inexperienced at the IPL level.

Leadership Role

Patidar's selection has been viewed as a new direction for RCB, which has not yet won an IPL championship despite making three finals appearances. He becomes the eighth captain of RCB since its 2008 launch and is set to inject new vigour and tactics into the team as they chase their first championship title. The management of the franchise felt assured about Patidar's potential, focusing on his familiarity with the local area and understanding as strengths for captaining an Indian team in a cricket competition dominated by Indians.

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Overall, Rajat Patidar's emergence from an unsold candidate to the captain of one of the most popular cricket franchises is a testament to his skill and potential as a skipper, raising the bar for IPL 2025.