IPL 2025: AB de Villiers confirms Virat Kohli as RCB captain before franchise's official announcement
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Former South Africa captain AB De Villiers has backed his good friend Virat Kohli to become the captain of Royal Challengers Bengaluru for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League. De Villiers feels that RCB doesn't have any other option than Kohli for the role of captaincy.
RCB is one of the few teams which hasn't announced its captain yet. They have a no. of options for the role with Virat Kohli at the forefront. Apart from Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone, Krunal Pandya, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are options who can lead the team.
AB de Villiers picks Virat Kohli to become RCB captain
While speaking on his YouTube channel, AB de Villiers backed Virat Kohli to become RCB's captain for IPL 2025. De Villiers claimed that Kohli is at the end of his career and will be determined enough to take his team to the title with his performances.
"Mujhe lagta hai Virat hi ek matr option hai doston (Friends, I think Virat Kohli is the only option (for RCB’s captaincy choice)," De Villiers said.
"He is near the end of his career, more inspired than ever before. Till the time he gets the form and score runs, we are used to watching him play match-winning innings. It’s like a swansong," he added.
Among all the options, Virat Kohli is ahead and seems likely to take up RCB's captaincy for the upcoming season. RCB's team management has also claimed that Kohli could take up the role but hasn't made it official yet.
Virat Kohli's record as RCB captain
If Virat Kohli becomes RCB's captain, it will be his second stint at the role. The 36-year-old veteran has already led RCB from 2013 to 2021. The team's best performance came in 2016 when they made it to the final but lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the summit clash.
Kohli is third on the list of most no. of matches as a captain in IPL history and is just behind MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. He has led RCB in 143 matches in which the team emerged victorious in 66 matches and lost 70. He has a win percentage of 48.56.
Virat Kohli's stellar IPL numbers
Virat Kohli was retained by Royal Challengers Bengaluru before the IPL 2025 mega auction for INR 21 crore. He has a stellar record in the IPL with 8004 runs in 252 matches at an average of 38.66 and a strike rate of 131.97.
He is currently the highest run-scorer in the history of the tournament with 8 hundreds and 55 fifties. His best season came in 2016 when he amassed a record 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08 and a strike rate of 152.03. Kohli struck four hundreds in this season which is still a record.
Both Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers share a good relationship with each other from the time they were playing together for RCB. Both were the backbone of RCB's batting line-up and stitched together a no. of memorable partnerships.
