“Virat Kohli will be RCB captain” – AB de Villiers ‘confirms’ leadership return for ‘King’ in IPL 2025

Kohli is the third most capped IPL captain of all-time and is just one of four skippers to have 50 or more wins to his name.

Virat Kohli will take a U-turn on his captaincy retirement for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), reckons his former teammate AB de Villiers. Kohli, who took over the leadership role in 2013, announced at the end of the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) season that he’s decided to step down as RCB captain after 9 seasons. It wasn’t just a coincidence, as Kohli had decided to remove himself from the captaincy burden of the Indian team as well and thought it’d be the right time to do it in franchise cricket as well.

IPL 2025: Virat Kohli to return as RCB captain?

ABD reckons that Kohli will return to lead the side. Why? Well, his reasoning is that RCB haven’t gotten a captaincy-worthy player at the IPL 2025 auction. Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are the only three players they bought who have captaincy experience. However, it’s not saying much, as between the three of them, they’ve led in just 15 matches. Kohli, meanwhile, alone has 143 match experience as an IPL skipper.

Therefore, ABD thinks RCB will have no choice but to hand the captaincy role to Kohli. And maybe begrudgingly, but the star batter will have to accept it as well for the betterment of the team. “I don’t think it has been confirmed yet, but he will be the captain, I think, looking at the squad,” de Villiers said on his official YouTube channel.

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Virat Kohli’s record as RCB captain in IPL

In Kohli’s tenure as captain, RCB reached the playoffs four times (2015, 2016, 2020, and 2021). However, each time bad evaded them. Of the four instances where they made the final four, only once were they able to reach the IPL final (2016). Knowing for their batting, RCB fell just 8 runs short of chasing Sunrisers Hyderabad’s 208-run target. If that fateful day, luck had favoured Kohli, he might not have stepped down as captain further down the line, but years of disappointment took a toll on him.

With each passing season and new teammates, Kohli’s hoped for a change in result. Perhaps IPL 2025 will turn out to be the year for him and RCB.