“He will have a tough time against us” - KKR coach makes huge statement on RCB’s new captain ahead of IPL 2025

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) head coach Chandrakant Pandit cautioned Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) newly appointed captain, Rajat Patidar, for a massive challenge when the teams meet in the opening game of the upcoming IPL 2025. KKR and RCB will face off in the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata on March 22 to kickstart IPL 2025.

Meanwhile, Patidar was recently appointed by RCB as their captain for the IPL 2025 season. The 31-year-old incidentally captained Pandit's state - Madhya Pradesh in the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) and Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT).

Talking about RCB's appointment of Patidar as captain, Pandit told Mid Day:

"Though he is a new captain, there are stalwarts [like Virat Kohli] in his team. I am confident he will do well because he has the experience of leading MP. But he will have a tough time against us."

Meanwhile, KKR is one of the only two franchises (Delhi Capitals being the other) yet to decide on their captain for IPL 2025.

"In a few days we will take a decision on the captaincy [after] discussing with our franchise owners and CEO. We will come to know in one or two matches about what combination works for us. We will get an idea in our upcoming camps what every player’s role will be," said Pandit.

Despite Shreyas Iyer leading them to a dominant title run in IPL 2024, KKR decided to let go of him ahead of the IPL 2025 auction. As for RCB, the franchise is still searching for its elusive IPL title despite playing all 17 previous seasons.

"We can’t say any team is weak" - Chandrakant Pandit

Chandrakant Pandit acknowledged the challenge of restarting with several new players as KKR looks to defend their IPL title amid stiff competition in the upcoming season.

Despite letting go of their skipper from last season, KKR brought back several core players from last year's title-winning squad.

"We have a few new players, who were not part of the title-winning team last season. To understand each other will be quite important as they have played for different franchises earlier and now are part of our team. IPL is always a very competitive tournament and we can’t say any team is weak. It’s a challenge for all teams, because all have new players through the mega auction," said Pandit.

He added:

"We have players like Ajinkya [Rahane], Venkatesh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh and Harshit Rana. I am confident they will help the team perform well this time also."

With three titles, KKR is behind only Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI) in terms of overall IPL titles (five each). Apart from the players, KKR also have a few changes in their support staff, with the most notable one being Dwayne Bravo replacing Gautam Gambhir as Team Mentor.