He has led his respective team to the Final of three tournaments this season.
Rajat Patidar and captaincy seems to be the newest trend in the cricketing fraternity. After leading his respective teams to the Final in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) and the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) skipper is making headlines in the ongoing Duleep Trophy Final. Patidar has scored a magnificent 101 in the first innings of the Final against the South Zone.
After the South Zone were put into bat by Patidar, Kumar Kartikeya managed to pick up a four-wicket haul. This helped the Central Zone limit their opponents to a modest total of 149. Patidar’s century will ignite some confidence in him, ahead of India’s Test match series in due course. His knock of 101 consisted of 12 boundaries and two sixes.
The IPL 2025 winning captain is not new to making headlines for his glorious knocks. He smashed a terrific hundred in the quarter-final of the Duleep Trophy 2025 too, leaving the bowlers dazed. After Aryan Juyal was retired hurt, Patidar coupled with Danish Malewar to stitch a 204-run partnership. Malewar shone with a double ton too, as the team score soared to a mighty 532/4.
What was most special about the innings from Patidar, was the rate at which he scored his runs. His knock of 125 came off just 96 deliveries, which was at a staggering strike-rate of 130.20. Patidar is known to be one of the most aggressive batters against spin bowling in recent times, and can take the attack to the opposition in no time.
To add to that, he also scored a steady 66 in the second innings, which came off 72 deliveries. The innings was constructed beautifully, and consisted six boundaries as well as three maximums. In a format where batters do not prefer to hit the ball in the air as often, Patidar is not scared to take the aerial route. As a result, the Central Zone won the quarter-final on the basis of their first innings lead.
Post the quarter-final, the semi-final also saw some heroics from the right-handed batter from Madhya Pradesh. Batting second against the West Zone in the semi-final, Patidar was once again at it. He played a dependable knock of 77 off 84 balls. This knock had class written all over it, and comprised 14 boundaries with a strike-rate of a healthy 91.66.
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The 32-year-old has a brief career for India in the longest format. Patidar has featured in three Tests, which were against England in 2024. He was ruled out of the fifth Test of the series, due to an injury to his left ankle in the practice session ahead of the Test. Patidar was handed his cap in the second Test of the series at Visakhapatnam, in which he scored a promising 32 in the first innings.
However, he failed to make an impression in the subsequent Test, which India went on to win. He could not add much value in the fifth Test as well, with a score of 17 in the first innings. And his injury a few days later kept him away from donning the whites in the fifth Test in Dharamsala.
Having said that, Patidar is making a strong statement with consistent runs in the domestic circuit. The retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have opened up a few spots in India’s Test side. KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal have sealed the opening slot. However there might be room in the middle-order.
Sai Sudharsan and Karun Nair were on the flight to England for the recent Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. But they failed to induce promise. Though Sudharsan is very new to red-ball cricket at the highest level, the number of chances Karun gets will have to seen. But if Patidar keeps knocking on the doors of the selectors with performances like these, it will get very difficult for the selectors to keep him away. The only competition against him would be Sarfaraz Khan, who will also aim for a comeback on the back of some instrumental domestic numbers.
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