RCB won their maiden IPL title by defeating the Punjab Kings in the IPL 2025 Final last night.
Former India batter Aakash Chopra has praised the newly appointed Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) skipper Rajat Patidar after the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 Final against the Punjab Kings (PBKS) last night. The Madhya Pradesh player won the IPL on his captaincy debut and also ended the 18-year-long title drought of RCB.
“They were writing a new story and needed a new leader. The new leader did extremely well in the first four matches. He won two Player of the Match awards. He scored two half-centuries, one in Chennai as well,” said Chopra on his YouTube Channel.
Notably, after a brilliant start to the IPL 2025, the 32-year-old faced a slight decline in his form. He also sustained a finger injury towards the business end of the tournament. However, the one-week suspension of this cash-rich league due to the border conflicts provided him with the much-needed time to recover well.
The former opener felt that the new captain is not receiving enough applause after leading a trophyless team to glory. However, Chopra has acknowledged his efforts and crucial on-field tactics that played a big part in RCB’s title triumph.
“Captain Rajat Patidar once again flies under the radar. No one shows him, talks about him, or focuses on him that much. However, he is always there. He has made the right moves in the entire season,” he added.
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The cricketer-turned-commentator also emphasised the faith and courage shown by RCB towards Patidar to hand him the captaincy ahead of the IPL 2025. They could have opted to include a proven captaincy choice in their squad, like Shreyas Iyer or KL Rahul, in the auction.
Further, RCB could have also urged their former captain, Virat Kohli, to take up the leadership role once again. Instead, the Bengaluru management kept their belief in Patidar, who lacked leadership experience but had shown glimpses of a promising future as Madhya Pradesh’s skipper in the domestic circuit. He recently led MP to the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024-25.
“It was actually a massive investment of faith, belief and hope, as they made a small kid their captain. He is not young in terms of age but is short of experience. Teams generally go shopping for captains, or they might have looked towards Virat Kohli again,” stressed the former player.
RCB never went off to a flyer after being put to bat first in Ahmedabad. Patidar started well in his innings but fell for a yorker off pacer Kyle Jamieson. He scored 26 runs off 16 balls at a strike rate of 162.50. However, a crucial partnership between Jitesh Sharma and Romario Shepherd took their total to 190/9.
Coming into the chase, RCB bowlers also restricted the fiery PBKS lineup well and did not provide many chances for them to hit it big. A late surge from finisher Shashank Singh (61 off 30) took the match towards a close finish. However, he failed to chase the score by just six runs as RCB beat PBKS in the race to win their maiden IPL title.
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