Rise & Rise of RCB Captain Patidar

Having led MP to SMAT final, he now has a chance to go one better at the biggest stage

- GOMESH S @ Ahmedabad

AS Rajat Patidar got down on one knee and smashed Musheer Khan into the New PCA Stadium stands, leading Royal Challengers Bengaluru into the 2025 IPL final; he had become a part of an elite club of captains to achieve the feat.

Patidar joined Anil Kumble, Daniel Vettori and Virat Kohli—they are the ones to have led RCB to previous IPL finals—in taking the franchise with a massive fan base to their fourth summit clash in 18 years.

At this point, it is well established that RCB Director Mo Bobat asked Patidar whether he would be interested in taking the leadership role and from coming back into the team as an injury replacement in 2022 to leading the franchise to the 2025 IPL final; he has had a meteoric rise. And so is the fact that he was all set to get married during the IPL season before being called in as an injury replacement for Luvnith Sisodia.

However, it wasn't the first time Patidar was asked if he wanted to be captain. In fact, when the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association and head coach Chandrakant Pandit offered Patidar the Ranji captaincy four years ago, he wished to focus on his performance. "Initially, when we offered Ranji captaincy, Chandu sir asked him, and he was reluctant. He said, 'No, I want to concentrate on my batting'," MPCA secretary Sanjeev Rao recalls.