Former RCB star makes shocking revelation about Virat Kohli's captaincy stint in the IPL

Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) all-rounder Moeen Ali has said that the franchise had thought of replacing Virat Kohli as captain in 2019. The 38-year-old said that the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) champions had Parthiv Patel in mind to replace Kohli as RCB captain that season.

Ali said that he wasn't aware as to why Kohli was not replaced as RCB captain. He added that the former India wicketkeeper-batter was under serious consideration to take over as RCB skipper. He said to Sports Tak:

"In the final year when Gary Kirsten was there-after the first year, I believe-Parthiv was in line to become captain. He had a brilliant cricketing brain. That was the talk at the time. I don't know what happened or why it didn't materialise, but I'm sure he was seriously considered for the role."

RCB finished last on the points table in IPL 2019. They won only five out of their 14 league matches and lost eight games that season. During that edition of the tournament, the then-head coach, Gary Kirsten, had called for structural changes at the franchise.

"There are some structural changes that need to be made that have maybe been around for quite a long time. This is my first year as the head coach, so I've got a better understanding of what those are. We'll certainly discuss with our owners and look into that for next year," Kirsten had said in May 2019. (via ESPN Cricinfo).

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Virat Kohli led RCB for two more seasons before resigning as captain in 2021

Despite RCB's poor performance in IPL 2019, Virat Kohli was not replaced as the captain of the franchise that season. Gary Kirsten was removed as RCB coach after IPL 2019 and replaced by a new regime. Former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson took over as the Director of Cricket, while Simon Katich took over as the new RCB head coach.

Under the new coaching setup and Kohli's leadership, RCB qualified for the playoffs of IPL 2020. Ahead of IPL 2021, Katich resigned as the head coach and was replaced by Sanjay Bangar. The franchise again qualified for the playoffs. Before the knockout round, Kohli announced that IPL 2021 would be his last season as captain of the franchise.

Virat Kohli also gave up India's T20I captaincy in 2021 and was replaced by Rohit Sharma as the ODI captain, ahead of a tour of South Africa. In January 2022, the 36-year-old stepped down as the Test captain.

Edited by Aditya Singh