“Give him all the love you can” - Virat Kohli’s emotional plea to fans at RCB Unbox event ahead of IPL 2025

Star cricketer Virat Kohli made an emotional request to all Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) fans to give their next captain all the love, speaking at the RCB Unbox event ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. The event was held on Monday, March 17, at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

Rajat Patidar was announced as the new captain of RCB ahead of the IPL 2025 season. Talking at the event, Virat Kohli said that Patidar is going to lead for a long time and is a great talent.

He also added that Patidar has what it takes to take the franchise forward and asked the fans to give him all the love.

"The guy who is going to come next, is the guy who is going to lead you for a long time. Give him all the love you can. He is an amazing talent, a great player we have all seen that but he's got a great head on his shoulders. He'll do a great job for this amazing franchise and take the team forward. He's got everything that is required," Kohli said.

Virat Kohli was retained by the franchise for a whopping ₹21 crore while Patidar was retained for ₹11 crore ahead of the mega auction.

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Can Rajat Patidar lead RCB to their first IPL title?

RCB announced Rajat Patidar as their skipper for the upcoming IPL season. While it was expected that Virat Kohli would lead the side, the franchise has looked at the bigger picture, appointing a leader for the long term.

Patidar came in as a replacement player in 2022 and impressed with the bat, scoring 333 runs including a century in the Eliminator. He has played only 27 matches for RCB in the IPL, scoring 799 runs at an average of 34.73 and a strike-rate of 158.84.

However, he has successfully led his state team Madhya Pradesh and does have some amount of captaincy experience. The team made it to the playoffs last year but failed to progress ahead.

As RCB have never won the IPL even once, there will be pressure on the new captain to perform well and take the team all the way. They will hope for a change of fortunes with a new and young leader.