“You deserve it, you earned it” - Rajat Patidar reveals Virat Kohli’s words while taking over RCB captaincy

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru franchise has been captained by various cricketers so far, namely Virat Kohli, Daniel Vettori, Shane Watson, Anil Kumble, and Rahul Dravid. For the ongoing season, RCB has picked Rajat Patidar as their new skipper.

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Notably, Patidar was handed over the plaque by Kohli himself ahead of the IPL 2025 season at the RCB Unbox event. Speaking about his captaincy stint in a teaser of the RCB podcast, Patidar revealed the conversation he had with Kohli at the event.

“I was blank when he told me to hold the plaque. While giving it to me, he said, ‘you deserve it, you earned it.’ So I felt a little bit okay. I mean when Virat said this to me, then I became normal in that situation. So I think that these two things are always going to be very special for me,” Patidar said.

“Whenever he bats in the net, I watch his batting. I learn as much as I can from him. It is also an opportunity that I am playing and now I got the captaincy and he is with me. So I learn as much as I can from him. Because of the amount of experience and ideas that he has, no one else has the same,” he added.

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Furthermore, Patidar also opened up on the challenges of captaincy, the clarity that he had and the learnings that he was looking forward to in the ongoing season. For the unversed, RCB is currently ranked second in the standings with three more games to go in the league phase.

“A lot of things were clear, how to do it as I have already done it domestically. And the way the execution was done, all the players and all the bowlers and batsmen, I mean it was very nice to see. And as a captain, it gives me confidence to go there and win the match. Because this is the first year for me. And the way it started, it boosts me a lot as a captain and gives me confidence for the upcoming matches,” he concluded.

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