While Virat Kohli captained Royal Challengers Bengaluru from 2013 to 2021, the former Indian captain left the IPL team’s captaincy in 2021 citing workload management. With Royal Challengers Bengaluru letting go of long time regular Faf du Plessis in the 2024 mega auction, there were speculations that the team management could hand the captaincy back to Kohli. With the IPL side announcing Rajat Patidar as captain, RCB new pick Jitesh Sharma has shared how he felt that Kohli did not want captaincy again and he got to know about Patidar’s captaincy announcement like others.
“No, I found out about Rajat Patidar’s captaincy when everyone else did. But when you play a lot of cricket, you can sense these things. Like Virat Bhai did not want to captain this side. I don’t know why he did not want to captain. I am not part of the management side of things. When I retire from cricket and come into management, I will tell you such things. But for now, Virat bhai had not been captaining since 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,” Sharma said when asked about knowing about Patidar’s captaincy beforehand on the CriXtasy podcast.
Kohli had quit RCB captaincy post the 2021 IPL season and had retired from T20Is post India’s win in the 2024 T20 World Cup. Royal Challengers Bengaluru had announced Rajat Patidar as its captain during an event in Bengaluru last month. Mo Bobat, RCB director of cricket, had shared that Kohli was an option as a captain for the team management.
“Of course, Virat was an option and that goes without saying and I know that the fans would’ve probably lent towards Virat in the first instance, but we’ve seen a lot of love for Rajat too. Look, my point on Virat would be that Virat doesn’t need a captaincy title to lead. I think leadership, as we’ve all seen, is one of his strongest instincts. I think it just comes naturally to him. He leads regardless,” Bobat had told the media last month during the announcement of Patidar as the RCB captain.
Sharma, who was picked up by RCB for Rs 11 crore in the mega auction, shared that he will help Patidar in whatever the new captain needs from 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,” Jitesh said further.
