It has been a brilliant season for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in IPL 2025 till now but qualification for the playoffs is still not guaranteed for the Rajat Patidar-led side. RCB are currently at the top of the points table with 8 wins from 11 matches in this year’s competition. With 16 points and a Net Run Rate (NRR) of +0.48, they are just one win away from booking their spot in the Top 4. They also have a 78.6 per cent chance of finishing in the Top 2 while a top spot will be guaranteed if RCB win all their matches and Gujarat Titans lose at least one. However, if RCB end up losing all of their remaining three matches, their qualification chances will be in serious danger and they can even end up finishing in the sixth position.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli opened up on his loyalty to the Red and Gold franchise over the years and why he stepped down from captaincy in 2021.
Virat was speaking on the latest episode of the RCB Podcast, released on the franchise’s Youtube Channel. Virat has been stuck with RCB since the start of his international career in 2008, despite not being able to win a trophy with them. He is the franchise’s all-time highest run-getter, with 8,933 runs in 278 matches and 269 innings at an average of 39.52, with eight centuries and 64 fifties.
Speaking about sticking around with the team for so long, Virat revealed that he had the opportunity to explore newer teams in the IPL during the peak of his career from 2016-19, but he stuck around because of the “relationship and mutual respect” established with the franchise over the years and how nothing is above the love from the fans he gets.
“I’ve mentioned this before, I had the opportunity to explore, to look elsewhere, especially in the very prime peak years of my career from 16 to 19. I had constant suggestions and what not to switch and this, that and the other,” he said.
He also revealed that at one point, things got difficult for him while captaining RCB and India simultaneously, as attention and expectations were always on him, both as a batter and a captain, all the time.
“I was always in this space, what do I do? I was exposed to it 24/7. It did get very tough on me, and it did get too much in the end. That is why I stepped down because I felt like, if I have decided I want to be in this place, I needed to be happy. I need to have a space in my life where I can just come and play my cricket without being judged, without being looked at as, what are you going to do this season? What’s going to happen now?,” he added.
(With ANI inputs)
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