Rajat Patidar might have made things easy for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). The 31-year-old batter who’s been playing for RCB since 2021 could save the franchise from trouble. After letting go of their previous captain, Faf du Plessis, before the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 auction and failing to get one of the big names in Jeddah, RCB would have had to fall back on their old captain, Virat Kohli.
Kohli had let go of the leadership after the IPL 2021 season, and Faf had taken over the role. No obvious player pops out to lead RCB from the squad that they have managed to assemble for the 18th edition. Luckily, Patidar has emerged as perhaps the top and only captaincy contender for them. The franchise had already backed the swashbuckling batter, retaining him for Rs 11 crore.
Rajat Patidar’s SMAT show
Now’s the chance for Patidar to repay the faith. Still around three months left before the IPL 2025 season kicks off, Patidar has shown RCB a glimpse of what he can do. Leading Madhya Pradesh (MP) in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2024-25, Patidar has done exceptionally well.
Mere minutes ago, he took MP to their second SMAT Final. He’s led them in 9 matches, scoring nearly 350 runs while striking at 182.63. However, it’s his captaincy record that has been even better. He started with a 4-match winning streak, lost to Rajasthan, and then won 5 straight matches, including the second semifinal against Delhi at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. In the semifinal, he scored a 23-ball fifty and bagged the ‘Player of the Match’ award as well.
Rajat Patidar record as batter & captain in SMAT
| Matches | Won | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 8 | 347 | 49.57 | 182.63 | 4 |
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IPL 2025: Patidar best captaincy for RCB?
At this point, he can’t do much more. He was showcasing what he could in Bengaluru a few months later. Patidar was also leading a few big names, Venkatesh Iyer and Avesh Khan. One can’t forget Venky might be the Kolkata Knight Riders captain in IPL 2025, and this clearly shows Patidar’s ready to command the respect of big names, of which there will be plenty at the RCB.
Krunal Pandya, Jitesh Sharma, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are the other captaincy options for RCB. All three are captains for their respective sides in the SMAT, but there might be a scenario when one of them doesn’t play or comes in as an impact sub. That won’t be the case for Patidar. He’s one of the best T20 batters in the world at this moment, and taking MP to the SMAT Final shows he’s a good enough skipper as well. Now, the ball is in RCB’s court. They want to have Patidar as their new captain or will try and get Kohli back into the mix.
RCB squad for IPL 2025
Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Yash Dayal, Liam Livingstone
, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Rasikh Dar Salam, Suyash Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Nuwan Thushara, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethell, Devdutt Padikkal, Swastik Chhikara, Lungi Ngidi, Abhinandan Singh, Mohit Rathee
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