Candidates for RCB captaincy: The mega auction of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 ended on Monday (November 25) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In this, 10 teams spent Rs 639.15 crore and bought 182 players. This time there have been many important things at the auction. Many players have surprised in this mega auction, while some have created a history that will hardly be broken.
But during this auction, one of the teams that caught the attention of cricket fans on both days is Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). This Virat Kohli team has failed to win the title so far. But it was believed that this franchise would buy many strong players in the mega auction this time.
RCB did not buy any star worthy of captaincy
However, something opposite happened. The way RCB has formed the team is also confusing the fans. The biggest and most important confusion in this is regarding captaincy. Today we are going to talk about this. In fact, before the IPL auction, the Bengaluru team had released their captain Faf du Plessis.
In such a situation, it was believed that this team could go for a star player like Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer or KL Rahul for the captaincy in the mega auction. But this did not happen. Meanwhile, reports started saying that only Virat Kohli can take the reins of captaincy again.
Kohli can return to captain the team
We see proof of this in the squad after the auction, in which no star was bought who could be given the captaincy. The second piece of evidence is the statement RCB director Mo Bobt made at the end of the first day of auction.
Bobat had said that the management had completely left the decision of captaining RCB to Virat Kohli. He will decide if he will be the team captain or someone else. It is clear from this statement that no matter who is the captain of the team, it is Kohli who rules the team.
He had said, ‘Virat is an important member of our team. He is a senior player on the team. But now we have left the captaincy decision to him. He sent us some important messages yesterday. With this statement from Bobat, the fans have confirmed that only Kohli can take over the captaincy again.
These 3 players are also great candidates for the captaincy.
If Kohli doesn’t take over the captaincy, then the team will look very confused. In this, to be captain, Kohli will have to make some different decisions and hand over the reins to someone. Yes, Kohli will also decide who will be given the captaincy. This is stated by RCB director Mo Bobat himself in the previous statement.
Now, if we look closely and leave Kohli in the team, only 3 players are seen as candidates for captaincy. These three players are star batsman Rajat Patidar, all-rounder Krunal Pandya and fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar. However, if we look at these three, Paditar’s claim between them seems quite strong. Although this may come as a surprise to you. But this can also be true. The reason for this could be Patidar’s old relationship with RCB and Kohli’s trust. Now let’s see what happens.
Du Plessis and Maxwell were not bought
RCB had signed Virat Kohli for Rs 21 crore just before the IPL auction. Apart from Kohli, RCB signed Rajat Patidar for Rs 11 crore and Yash Dayal for Rs 5 crore. On the other hand, RCB had released captain Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell and Mohammed Siraj. The three were not even bought at the auction.
RCB bought fast bowler Josh Hazlewood the most expensive purchase. He was included in the team offering Rs 12.50 crore. Apart from these, Phil Salt was bought for Rs 11.50 crore, Jitesh Sharma for Rs 11 crore, Bhuvneshwar Kumar for Rs 10.75 crore and Liam Livingstone for Rs 8.75 crore. RCB also bought Krunal Pandya for Rs 5.75 crore.
This was RCB’s condition in the auction.
Spent: Rs 119.25 crore.
Rs: Rs 75 lakh left.
Players purchased: 22 (maximum 25 can be taken)
Foreign players purchased: 8 (maximum 8 can be chosen)
Complete RCB squad…
batter
1. Virat Kohli – 21.00 crores
2. Phil Salt: Rs 11.50 crore.
3. Rajat Patidar: 11.00 crores.
4. Jitesh Sharma, 11.00 crore batsman.
5. Devdutt Padikkal: Rs 2.00 crore.
6. Swastik Chikara: Rs 30 lakh.
off-road
1. Liam Livingstone: 8.75 crores.
2. Krunal Pandya: Rs 5.75 crore.
3. Tim David: 3.00 crores.
4. Jacob Bethel: 2.60 million rupees.
5. Pastor Romario: 1.50 million rupees.
6. Swapnil Singh: Rs 50 lakh.
7. Manoj Bhandage: Rs 30 lakh.
bowler
1. Josh Hazlewood: Rs 12.50 crore.
2. Bhuvneshwar Kumar: 10.75 crores.
3. Rasik Salaam: 6.00 crores.
4. Yash Dayal: 5.00 crores.
5. Suyyash Sharma: 2.60 crores.
6. Nuwan Untilhara: 1.60 crores.
7. Lungi Ngidi: 1.00 million rupees.
8. Abhinandan Singh: Rs 30 lakh.
9. Mohit Rathi: Rs 30 lakh.
