Rajat Patidar

Rajat Patidar (born 1 June 1993) is an Indian international cricketer. He is a right-handed top order batter and an off-spin bowler. He made his international debut against South Africa in December 2023. Patidar plays for Madhya Pradesh in domestic cricket and captains the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League. In 2025, under his captaincy, the team won their first title.

Early life

Patidar was born on 1 June 1993 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. His father is a businessman. He joined a cricket club when he was 8 years old and was later enrolled into an academy by his grandfather. He started his career as a bowler and started concentrating on batting after his U-15 levels.

Domestic career

He made his first-class debut on 30 October 2015 in the 2015–16 Ranji Trophy. He made his Twenty20 debut for Madhya Pradesh in the 2017–18 Zonal T20 League on 8 January 2018.

He was the leading run-scorer for Madhya Pradesh in the 2018–19 Ranji Trophy, with 713 runs in eight matches. In August 2019, he was named in the India Blue team's squad for the 2019–20 Duleep Trophy.

In Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024-25, Rajat Patidar was named the captain for Madhya Pradesh cricket team where he was the 2nd highest run scorer of the tournament scoring 428 runs in 9 innings at an average of 61.14 and a strike rate of 186.08 with 5 half centuries. He also lead his team to finals and displayed one-man show performance scoring 81* (40b, 6x4, 6x6).

Rajat Patidar also holds the record of hitting the 5th fastest Century in Ranji Trophy scoring a 100 in just 68 balls against Haryana. His score at the end of this match was 159 (102b, 13x4, 7x6).

Franchise career

In February 2021, Patidar was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL auction ahead of the 2021 Indian Premier League. He managed to score only 71 runs in the four games he played and was subsequently released.

Patidar went unsold in the 2022 IPL auction but was later signed by Royal Challengers Bangalore as a mid-season replacement. On 25 May 2022, in the Eliminator match in the 2022 Indian Premier League, he scored a match winning 112 not out against Lucknow Super Giants. This proved to be a record-breaking innings for Patidar, as he became the first uncapped player to score a century in the playoff stage of the Indian Premier League. This was also the joint-fastest century (49 balls) by a player in the playoff stage. Patidar ended the 2022 season with 333 runs scored in eight matches at an average of 55.50.

Ahead of the 2023 Indian Premier League he was retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore, but missed the IPL 2023 due to Achilles Heel injury.

In 2024 Indian Premier League he scored 395 runs in 13 innings at an average of 30.38 and at a strike rate of 177.13 which included 5 half-centuries.

When Patidar was retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore ahead of the 2025 Indian Premier League some analysts opined that he was in the race for the franchise's captaincy, especially with skipper Faf du Plessis not retained. With Virat Kohli opting to continue just as a player Patidar was appointed the new RCB captain for IPL 2025. Under his captaincy, RCB clinched IPL trophy for the first time.

International career

As a result of a phenomenal domestic season and his performances in 2022 IPL season, Patidar was named in the One-Day International (ODI) squad for the series against South Africa in the month of October. Later in February 2023 he was named in the ODI squad against New Zealand as an injury replacement for Shreyas Iyer. However he failed to make it to the playing eleven on both the occasions.

He made his ODI debut on 21 December 2023 against South Africa, where he scored 22 runs in 16 balls.

In January 2024, he was named as a replacement for Virat Kohli in India's squad for the first two matches of the test series against England. He made his Test debut on 2 February 2024 in the second match of the series, scoring 32 and 9 runs in the first and second innings, respectively.

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Patidar, Rajat
1993 births
Living people
Indian cricketers
Madhya Pradesh cricketers
Cricketers from Madhya Pradesh
Royal Challengers Bengaluru cricketers
21st-century Indian sportsmen
India Test cricketers