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.
And he did concentrate on his batting. Patidar had two stellar seasons with the bat, averaging over 80 in red-ball cricket during the 2021-22 and 2022 seasons. In the season after, he went on to accumulate 884 runs and soon reaped the rewards with an India call-up. After two seasons with RCB, he made his ODI debut in 2023 and then played Test cricket for India next year.
With all the experience and exposure he had since the captaincy offer when Pandit took over as head coach, when Bobat asked the question, Patidar wanted to give it a go in domestic cricket. He went to MPCA and Pandit and asked if he could lead the white-ball sides. “He volunteered himself this year in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy, ‘Chandu sir, I'll lead the team.’ He said, 'Since Shubham Sharma was our Ranji captain, and he is doing well, he shouldn't be disturbed.' When Chandu sir offered him T20 captaincy, he readily accepted,” says Rao.
As fate would have it, things fell into place for Patidar and MP. He led the state side to the final of the domestic T20 tournament — the knockouts were played in Bengaluru. Patidar smashed 428 runs at 61.14 average and 186.08 strike rate, taking the team to the summit clash. However, they fell short in the final hurdle against the Shreyas Iyer-led Mumbai. During these knockout games, Patidar and Bobat spent a lot of time talking about captaincy and his leadership. Bobat, too, gave him confidence that he could succeed as captain.
Cut to present, Patidar has become the captain who led RCB to their fourth IPL final. The road to this point was not easy; he had injury concerns, played a couple of games as just an impact player, but when the playoffs came, Patidar brought his best with bowling changes and captaincy. His numbers — 286 runs at 23.83 average and 142.28 strike rate — might not be as good as his teammates, but Patidar, the captain, has only gotten better as the tournament progressed.
Understandably, much like the millions of RCB fans, Patidar’s father Manohar, too, is a happy man. For Manohar, it had always been about supporting Patidar’s dream of playing cricket. Whether it was when he started with aspirations of becoming a pacer or switching to spin before eventually becoming a batter, Manohar and his family were behind Patidar, doing what they could. “It was all his hard work. He didn't need to study, he didn't need to take care of the house. He was free from the beginning. I didn't give him any load. He was born to play cricket. When I didn't force him, he used to do what he wanted,” Manohar told this daily.
While Patidar’s career has grown tremendously in the last few years, not much has changed in the Patidar household. They have always been proud of him, and they still are. “We are very proud, it feels very good. It is a big deal becoming the captain of RCB,” says Manohar. Becoming captain was just the first of many right steps Patidar has taken over the past few months.
Come Tuesday, he has a chance at making history — becoming the first male captain to win a trophy for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Watching him on TV, hoping that he makes it happen, would be millions of RCB fans and his father Manohar. Will he? Time will tell.
