After the franchise’s selections during the super auction, Virat Kohli is almost guaranteed to return as the captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad for the 2025 Indian Premier League season.
Three years have passed since Virat Kohli relinquished both the leadership position of the Indian team and the captaincy of the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad. Even after scoring his 30th Test century against Australia on Sunday in Perth, Kohli’s aim of leading RCB to the Indian Premier League (IPL) championship remains unrealized.
Given how things have worked out for RCB during the IPL 2025 Mega Auction, Kohli appears to be the only realistic option to guide the team for the upcoming three-year T20 league cycle. Along with Rajat Patidar and rookie pacer Yash Dayal, the former captain was one of just three players kept by the team for a total of Rs 21 crore.
RCB purchased 19 players at the auction for more than Rs 82 crore. However, other from Krunal Pandya’s minor domestic leadership experience, only Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Liam Livingstone have any captaincy experience.
None of Livingstone, Bhuvneshwar, or Krunal Pandya have any track record of successfully managing an IPL team. There were clear signs that RCB would consider having Kohli back as the team’s captain as soon as they opted not to keep Faf du Plessis.
During his last tenure, which lasted from 2013 to 2021, Kohli has the third-longest IPL captaincy tenure. In 143 games, he captained the RCB, winning 66 and losing 70, with three games tied and four games ending in a draw.
The only players with more IPL matches than Kohli are Rohit Sharma (158 games) and MS Dhoni (226 games in leadership). Under his direction, RCB made it to the playoffs at least four times, and their most successful IPL season was in 2016, when they suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the championship match.
read more: WPL Set to Start from January in 2026
Former RCB Captain Faf Du Plessis
In the IPL 2022 and 2024, Du Plessis led RCB into the playoffs a few times, but the team never made a serious run for the championship. It appeared from the way the auction went that RCB management was not in a rush to find a player who could take the team to the next level.
They did make an effort to bid for KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant, but they immediately chose to withdraw as the offers for both players above Rs 10 crore. Despite what their Director of Cricket, Mo Babat, may say, it appears like RCB has decided that Kohli will be their next captain.
RCB Owner on Virat Kohli Captaincy
Ahead of the 2025 Indian Premier League, Bobat refused to announce the skipper on Monday. He responded, “Virat is a central figure, he is a senior member of the team,” when questioned about Kohli. But as far as captaincy is concerned, we haven’t decided. We’ll make a decision later. He provided us with some insightful SMS messages yesterday.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗥𝗖𝗕 𝗦𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗱 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹?
— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) November 26, 2024
Head Coach Andy Flower gets into the technicalities and explains the skill sets of our new recruits, talks about having clarity on player availability and bids farewell to released players.#PlayBold #ನಮ್ಮRCB… pic.twitter.com/1ycU37kPfX
However, as of right now, Virat Kohli is expected to return to his role as RCB captain in the IPL 2025, marking the “Return of the King”!
Here’s how Royal Challengers Bangalore looks after IPL 2025 Mega Auction –
Squad Strength: 22
Indian Players: 14
Overseas: 8
Retained Players (3): Virat Kohli (Rs 21 crore), Rajat Patidar (Rs 11 crore), Yash Dayal (Rs 5 crore)
Players bought in the auction –
| S. No. | Name | Country | Price | Speciality |
| 1. | Liam Livingstone | England | Rs 8.75 crore | All-rounder |
| 2. | Phil Salt | England | Rs 11.50 crore | WK- Batter |
| 3. | Jitesh Sharma | India | Rs 11 crore | WK-Batter |
| 4. | Josh Hazlewood | Australia | Rs 12.50 crore | Bowler |
| 5. | Rasikh Dar | India | Rs 6 crore | Bowler |
| 6. | Suyash Sharma | India | Rs 2.60 crore | Bowler |
| 7. | Krunal Pandya | India | Rs 5.75 crore | All-rounder |
| 8. | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | India | Rs 10.75 crore | Bowler |
| 9. | Swapnil Singh | India | Rs 50 lakh | All-rounder |
| 10. | Tim David | Australia | Rs 3 crore | All-rounder |
| 11. | Romario Shepherd | West Indies | Rs 1.5 crore | All-rounder |
| 12. | Nuwan Thushara | Sri Lanka | Rs 1.6 crore | Bowler |
| 13. | Manoj Bhandage | India | Rs 30 lakhs | All-rounder |
| 14. | Jacob Bethell | England | Rs 2.60 crore | All-rounder |
| 15. | Devdutt Padikkal | India | Rs 2 crore | Batter |
| 16. | Swastik Chikara | India | Rs 30 lakh | All-rounder |
| 17. | Lungi Ngidi | South-Africa | Rs 1 crore | Bowler |
| 18. | Abhinandan Singh | India | Rs 30 lakh | Bowler |
| 19. | Mohit Rathee | India | Rs 30 lakh | All-rounder |
