Royal Challengers Bengaluru's director of cricket Mo Babat has revealed that they still have not decided on who will they be appointing as their captain in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League. However, he also talked about how Virat Kohli is involved in their planning for the next season and their work in the IPL 2025 auction despite still being busy with the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
RCB did not bid for big names like Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer and neither did they use the Right To Match card for their former captain Faf du Plessis, who joined Delhi Capitals at his base price of Rs 2 crore. All of these players were being considered as potential candidates who could end up in their franchise and could even take up the role of their next captain.
Mo Babat on Virat Kohli's involvement
Mo Babat revealed that Virat Kohli sent them feedback for their picks on Day 1 of the Jeddah bidding wars via a text message following his historic century in the Perth Test against Australia.
"Virat sent a few text messages on his feedback after Day 1 of the auction. He has lots of insight about players. He is always part of planning and all that. We haven’t made any decisions on captaincy. We will give it a thought after the auction and we know what our squad looks like," Mo Babat said.
RCB's buys in IPL 2025 Auction
RCB had retained only three players prior to the auction in the form of Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar and Yash Dayal. They released the likes of Maxwell, Siraj, and Du Plessis, and later did not even try to bring them back by using RTM which showed that they were in a mood for revamp.
They brought in some overseas heavy hitters like Liam Livingstone, Phil Salt, and Romario Shepherd. They strengthen their bowling with Josh Hazlewood, Rasikh Dar, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. They have also roped in young talent like Jitesh Sharma and a veteran in Krunal Pandya.
Liam Livingstone (8.75 crore), Phil Salt (11.50 crore) Jitesh Sharma (INR 11 crore), Josh Hazlewood (12.50 crore), Rasikh Dar (6 crores), Suyash Sharma (2.60 crore), Krunal Pandya (5.75 crore), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (10.75 crore), Swapnil Singh (50 Lakh), Romario Shepherd (1.50 crore), Nuwan Thushara (1.60 crore), Manoj Bhandage (30 Lakh), Jacob Bethell (2.60 crore
