IPL 2025: RCB’s dawn of new era under Patidar as they hope to find silverware in special 18

He walked onto the dias at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium amidst a deafening cheer from a big crowd. Virat Kohli handed him a special plate that read, “Rajat, you have been chosen as our next leader, and you are ready. Enjoy it, and we are all behind you. Team RCB.”

From going unsold in IPL 2022 to being captain of one of the most loved franchises, Rajat Patidar’s story is a fairytale one, a typical Bollywood-esque, featuring the ebbs and flows of a star in the making.

Patidar was asked about the role after the end of the 2024 season when he had already become an integral part of the team for his sheer ability to tonk down spinners for fun. He led Madhya Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy as a dress rehearsal for his captaincy role at RCB and cleared with flying colours. 

Patidar led MP to the final of the domestic T20 tournament and was fabulous with the bat too, scoring 428 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 186.08. 

He is now set to lead RCB in IPL 2025 as RCB have gone away from their previous strategy of handing the captaincy reins to international stars. Patidar and RCB will hope the time is now as they enter the 18th season of the tournament.

18 seasons since they first began their quest for the glory. 18 seasons of wait. 18 is a special one also as it is their iconic batter Kohli’s jersey number too. 

RCB have the arsenal to end their drought this year, though. They have bolstered their bowling line-up to counter the ultra-challenging conditions for the bowlers at the M Chinnaswamy. 

RCB have added pace king, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and test-line specialist Josh Hazlewood, among a bunch of other stars. They also have Krunal Pandya, who keeps it tight, alongside another star in the making – Rasikh Salam. 

The Bengaluru franchises also onboarded firepower in the form of Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma, Tim David and Jacob Bethell. All of these players are making RCB a side to reckon with. 

The bowlers will be thrown to a test in unforgiving conditions, the batters will have a task cut out and the new captain will also face a litmus test. A test of leading expectations of crores of fans and stepping into the shoes of big guns like Virat and Faf du Plessis. While handing the captaincy to Rajat, RCB’s head coach Andy Flower highlighted three key qualities in him. 

The first was his ‘calmness’. The second was the care for his players and the third was ‘stubbornness and a strength and a steeliness about him’.

All of that and much more will be under the test when Patidar leads a star-studded RCB side in a special season 18 as they hunt for that silverware that has eluded them ever since.