"Only made my respect for him grow" - RCB head coach heaps praise on Virat Kohli after appointing new captain for IPL 2025

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) head coach Andy Flower heaped praise on batting stalwart Virat Kohli during the franchise's captaincy announcement event on Thursday, February 13. Rajat Patidar was announced as the RCB skipper for the upcoming season of the IPL at the event.

With RCB opting not to go for big names such as Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul or Rishabh Pant in the mega auction, they were left with a choice of appointing either Kohli or Rajat Patidar to lead the team. The franchise ultimately decided to go with the latter.

In the media interactions following the event, Flower opened up on the discussions he and Virat had during that time. He said:

"In our discussions with Virat, I thought the integrity he showed as a man on that subject was of the highest calibre. I enjoyed talking with him and his energy and enthusiasm for the upcoming season was something I liked. He likes Rajat as a person and as a player, a relationship that will help Rajat. In my experience with him in the first half last season, he played a huge part in us turning things around and how he supported Faf. That experience only made my respect for him grow."

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"Planting those seeds a couple of years ago has paid off" - Mo Bobat opens up on his discussions with Rajat Patidar about captaincy

When Mo Bobat, Direct of Cricket at RCB, was asked about how the management zeroed down on Rajat Patidar as the skipper, he replied:

"We spent a lot of time discussing this, we spoke about it last season about his captaincy aspirations and we will be able to observe him. Planting those seeds a couple of years ago has paid off. The decision about Faf was a difficult one, he is an absolute champion but given his age and state in the game, it was quite tough for us.

"We only retained three Indians and went into the auction with the captaincy discourse as well. We wanted to get a captain but didn't go too hard to overvalue them. We have got experienced Indians and foreigners in the group after the auctions."

Bobat also spoke about the discussions he had with batting coach Dinesh Karthik and Virat Kohli. He added:

"We had discussions with Rajat and DK, who is a part of our coaching group. In our conversations with Rajat, we realised he was very ambitious. We watched Rajat and others closely, but Rajat's performances were quite inspiring.

"We spoke to Virat, and with all the experience he has it helped us. Re-enforcing Andy's points he is very brave under pressure and he can take all of that in his captaincy and have the team in good stead."

Patidar becomes the eighth captain overall in the history of IPL to lead RCB. He becomes the fourth Indian after Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Virat Kohli to lead the franchise.