Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru batter AB de Villiers feels the franchise doesn’t have any other option other than to appoint Virat Kohli as the team’s captain for the upcoming IPL 2025. It has been reported that Kohli is all set to take over the captaincy baton.
RCB didn’t retain their former skipper Faf du Plessis, who had led them in the last three seasons. Meanwhile, Kohli had relinquished his captaincy duties after IPL 2021 after he led the franchise for almost a decade.
RCB is yet to win an IPL title despite qualifying for the final on three occasions.
AB de Villiers said on his YouTube Channel, “Mujhe lagta hai Virat hi ek matr option hai dosto (Friends, I think Virat Kohli is the only option [for RCB’s captaincy choice). 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.”
Kohli led RCB to 66 wins in 143 matches but could not take the franchise to glory under his leadership.
Meanwhile, Kohli isn’t in the best of forms as he could only manage 190 runs in five Test matches at an average of 23.75 against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar trophy. The talisman would look to turn the tables in the ODI series against England and he is also going to hold the key in the Champions Trophy.
IPL 2025 will commence on March 21 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
RCB squad for IPL 2025: Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Yash Dayal, Liam Livingstone, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Rasikh Salam Dar, Suyash Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Nuwan Thushara, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethell, Devdutt Padikkal, Lungi Ngidi, Swastik Chikkara, Abhinandan Singh, Mohit Rathee.
