Overview

• Director of cricket Mo Bobat says he and coach Andy Flower met Virat Kohli in Ahmedabad to outline the plan and received his explicit blessing to back Rajat Patidar.
• RCB weighed buying back Faf du Plessis or reverting to Kohli as captain but prioritized an Indian leader and avoided entering the auction fixed on a specific captaincy target.
• Before the mega auction, the franchise released almost the entire squad, retaining only Kohli, Patidar and Yash Dayal to maximize flexibility in the rebuild.
• Bobat recounts discussing leadership with Patidar in Dharamsala during IPL 2024, when the batter expressed interest in captaincy and broader team leadership.
• Kohli supported and empowered Patidar through the season as a distributed leadership group formed around him, and RCB won the title even as Patidar finished 2025 with 312 runs after 395 in 2024.