2025 has been a glorious year for Rajat Patidar as the captain of title-winning teams. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) leader now sets sights on an India comeback in Tests, with the captaincy of Madhya Pradesh in the upcoming Ranji Trophy 2025-26.
In an similar fashion, Patidar had taken over as captain for Madhya Pradesh in the last SMAT (Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy) and VHT (Vijay Hazare Trophy) before leading RCB to their maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) title.
In SMAT 2024-25, MP topped the table with six out of seven wins, but lost to Mumbai in the Final. In VHT 2024-25, MP finished third in the Group E points table with 14 points from three wins out of six. Patidar & Co. narrowly missed the Preliminary Quarter-Finals, finishing just behind Bengal, who won one extra match and grabbed a total of 18 points.
Rajat Patidar (c), Yash Dubey, Harsh Gawli, Shubham Sharma, Himanshu Mantri, Harpreet Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Sagar Solanki, Kumar Kartikey, Saransh Jain, Adhir Pratap, Aryan Pandey, Arshad Khan, Anubhav Agarwal, and Kuldeep Sen.
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During the Duleep Trophy, which ended last month, Patidar lifted another trophy with the Central Zone.
Now, the 32-year-old aims to don the India whites as he is set to lead his side in the First-Class games starting on October 15 against Punjab.
Last season, MP’s solitary win out of seven games came against Bihar, while five were drawn under the leadership of Shubham Sharma. He was also the leading run-getter for the team with 943 runs, just 17 short of Yash Rathod at the top. Shubman’s stint included three hundreds and four half-centuries. Patidar was the second-best run-maker for MP with 529 runs, including a century and two fifties.
Overall in his FC career, Patidar has amassed 5,000+ runs in 72 matches, returning with 15 centuries. However, his Test career is just three games long. The Indore-born played three Tests against England in the home series last year. His debut score of 32 remains his top score for the No.4 batter.
Looking at the current Indian team, the No.4 spot, originally held by legends Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, has been passed to the new skipper, Shubman Gill. If India were to accommodate Patidar in the playing XI, he would likely have to take the No.3 spot, which is currently held by an out-of-colour Sai Sudharsan.
Patidar is currently leading the Rest of India against Vidarbha in the Irani Cup. He was dismissed for 66 in the first innings. At Stumps on Day 3, Akshay Wadkar & Co. have put up 96/2 in the second innings and have a lead of 224 runs.
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