Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) all-rounder Moeen Ali recently disclosed that the franchise nearly replaced Virat Kohli as captain back in 2019. Moeen claimed that Parthiv Patel was on the brink of being appointed as RCB skipper during Gary Kirsten’s coaching tenure.
Kohli, one of RCB’s most celebrated leaders, officially took over the captaincy from Daniel Vettori in 2013 and held the role until 2021. Despite his impressive performances with the bat, RCB suffered a horrific run under his leadership, especially between 2017 and 2019, finishing last in two of those three seasons. The poor seasons came after RCB’s heartbreaking loss in the 2016 final. Ali, who was part of the RCB setup between 2018 and 2020, revealed that there were discussions about replacing Kohli were quite serious. He said Parthiv was being strongly considered for the role.
“Yes, I think he was. I’m quite sure he was. 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,” Moeen told Sports Tak.
Despite internal discussions, the change in the captaincy never came to being. Kohli retained the captaincy and led the side until 2021, when he voluntarily stepped down citing workload concerns. Kohli led RCB to the playoffs in 2020 and continued to top the run-scoring charts. In 2021, Kohli announced his decision to give up captaincy, and South African veteran Faf du Plessis took over in the subsequent seasons.
RCB finally broke their title drought in 2025 under the leadership of Rajat Patidar. Kohli played a big role with the bat, scoring 657 runs in 15 matches. Meanwhile, Parthiv, who was with RCB till 2019, did not play in the IPL thereafter.
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