IPL 2025: Will Virat Kohli be back as RCB captain?

Will the 2025 IPL see the return of Virat Kohli in the captain’s avatar at Royal Challengers Bengaluru? As speculation rises to fever pitch 24 hours before the IPL retention lists are announced on Thursday evening, there is a strong possibility that Kohli — who has been a one-franchise man — will wear the armband again.

The master batter, who led RCB for nine seasons from 2013 to 2021 by example but without a trophy, stepped down on the back of him quitting the national T20 captaincy after the T20 World Cup in the UAE. There is now a leadership vacuum in the 'Play Bold Army' as Faf du Plessis, who did a decent job in the last three-year cycle, has turned 40 and will not be retained by the team.

A Times of India report says Kohli has agreed to step in, ostensibly to have a last shot at the trophy which has often agonisingly eluded him. In nine seasons under Kohli’s leadership, RCB made the play-offs four times and lost a close final against Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight runs in 2016. Incidentally, Kohli was in a phenomenal form in 2016 as he piled up a record 973 runs — still the highest in a single season — while he is also the leading scorer in the league with 8,004 runs (including eight centuries).

"I will continue to be an RCB player till I play my last game in IPL. But it’s been a great journey of nine years of joy, frustration, moments of happiness and sadness, and I just want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for supporting me and believing in me relentlessly and unconditionally.’’ Kohli had said on his X handle after stepping down from captaincy three years ago .  

While Kohli may not have been the captain for last three seasons, he had been very much the go-to person for du Plessis and other teammates for advice at critical junctures.

The franchises are generally tightlipped about their retention policy or auction strategy (some are known to hold mock auctions as preparation), but there was some buzz in the media that RCB were eyeing a younger captain in Shubman Gill, though the latter refused to leave Gujarat Titans, while the name of K.L. Rahul, a Bengaluru boy, was also in the air sometime ago.    

Each franchise factors in a lot of pros and cons before choosing a captain, saleability certainly being one of them. Who better than Kohli on that score who, at 35 and with a reduced workload in international cricket (no T20Is), is likely to be more receptive to such a proposal?

The IPL, on its part, can only celebrate such an eventuality as it’s now short on the larger-than-life captains, with M.S. Dhoni relinquishing his post and Rohit Sharma being removed. The elusive IPL trophy, if won, can only be an icing on the cake for Kohli.