‘Took a very good decision…’: Sanjay Manjrekar’s take on RCB not going with Virat Kohli as their captain for IPL 2025

Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) announced Rajat Patidar as their new captain for the 2025 edition of the tournament. This marked end of captaincy era of Virat Kohli for the franchise. On this decision, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar stated that RCB did not want to put pressure on him by handling him the responsibility of captaincy and hence did not appoint him again to the team.

Following the release of Faf du Plessis, Kohli was the best contender to become the leader and Rajat Patidar was nowhere in the list. But Bangalore preferred Rajat, who had led Madhya Pradesh to the final of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

“I thought RCB took a very good decision. They didn’t want to put pressure on Virat Kohli by giving him the responsibility of captaincy. When someone is in the nothing-to-lose zone, you must have seen reality shows, when someone is out of the race or singing in his farewell round,” Manjrekar said while speaking on Star Sports.

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“I think the best of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in recent times will be seen in this IPL. These two are big brands of Indian cricket, are together in this game,” Manjrekar added.

Rajat came in place of Faf du Plessis, who got released from the team in 2024. Rajat had signed up for the franchise three years ago, and guided his team to final of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.