New Delhi: Royal Challengers Bengaluru bought 19 players in the IPL 2025 auction in Jeddah and their strategy seemed very clear. The franchise wasn't desperate for a captaincy option and was smart with its offers at the two-day event. The The most expensive player the franchise bought was Josh Hazlewood for Rs 12.50 crore and it was no surprise that their bids for Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul – two prominent captaincy options in the pool – did not exceed Rs 11 crore and Rs 10.50 crore respectively.
As TimesofIndia.com had reported, Virat Kohli is expected to return as RCB captain from the 2025 edition and the composition of the 22-man squad (19 purchases and three retentions) also points in this direction. They were after Pant and Rahul but the bidding pattern was not desperate. It seemed like the offers for the two players were to form the core, but not as a leadership option. They didn't even raise the paddle for another option – Shreyas Iyer – who finally went to Punjab Kings for Rs 26.75 crore.
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RCB was initially aggressive for both Pant and Rahul but when the bidding crossed the Rs 10 crore mark, they were happy to play as spectators as teams like Lucknow Super Giants, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals were behind Pant and DC, Kolkata were Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings seemed in no mood to let Rahul go.
And it was no surprise that they didn't go back to former captain Faf Du Plessis, who could have come cheaper than the Rs 7 crore they had paid earlier.
The franchise that has yet to win an IPL title has put together a strong team for the new cycle and would hope to end the long wait under Kohli, the player who has been with them since the first edition.
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As the reporter said earlier, Kohli has already had these discussions with the management and has clearly expressed his intention to take over the leadership role. He had led RCB from 2013 to 2021 and the team reached the playoffs four times and came agonizingly close to winning the title in 2016 when they lost to SRH in the title fight.
Both Kohli the captain and Kohli the player still have unfinished business in the IPL and it remains to be seen if 2025 could be that year.
