Royal Challengers Bengaluru head coach Andy Flower has opened up on Rajat Patidar’s qualities, which impressed him to back the batter as captain for the upcoming IPL 2025. In the mega auction, RCB didn’t go for big names like Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, and KL Rahul, all of whom have IPL leadership experience and thus it was reported that Virat Kohli might once again take back the RCB’s captaincy baton.

However, the franchise named Rajat Patidar as their new leader. Patidar has performed consistently in the last few seasons for RCB and he also led Madhya Pradesh to the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy but they could not cross the last hurdle against Mumbai.

Flower, who has all the coaching experience, noted that Rajat is calm under pressure and cares about people around him.

Andy Flower said in the press conference on Thursday, “The first one is, that there’s a calmness and a simplicity to Rajat that I think will stand in really good stead as a leader and a captain, particularly in the IPL. As we know, the IPL is one of the premier competitions in the world, and there’s pressures involved in that. And I think the calm, simple demeanour that inherently lives within Rajat is going to serve him really well in the early, early of that tournament. The second thing I’d say about him, he’s inherently quite a quiet guy, but observing him, he cares about the people around him.

“He cares about the people that he plays with, that he shares a dressing room with. And I think that’s a quality that means that he will instantly have respect and care from other people, and that, as a leader, those qualities are important in that people will follow you and get behind you. And then the third thing that stands out for me about him is that he’s got a stubbornness and a strength and a steeliness about him.”

IPL 2025 will kick off in Eden Gardens on March 21.