Who is Rajat Patidar, RCB’s pocket dynamo?

Rajat Patidar followed his maiden T20 century in the Eliminator with a 42-ball 58 against the Rajasthan Royals in the Qualifier 2. The 28-year-old smashed four boundaries and three maximums to help the Royal Challengers Bangalore post 157 runs in the first innings at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. 

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Against the Lucknow Super Giants, Patidar creamed seven sixes across all parts of Eden Gardens and scored 112 off 54 balls. 

He now has scored 333 runs in eight matches this season at a strike rate of 152.75 and average of more than 155. He was not picked at the IPL 2022 mega-auction and was roped in as a replacement for Karnataka’s Luvnith Sisodia. 

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He was born on June 01, 1993, in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He made his First-class debut on November 02, 2015, against Baroda, List-A debut on December 11, 2015, against Saurashtra, and T20 debut on January 08, 2018, against Rajasthan.

Patidar has an impressive T20 batting record of scoring over 700 runs in 23 matches at an average of over 33 with a strike rate of over 140. He was sold to RCB in The 2021 IPL Auction for the base price of 20 lakhs, making his debut in their season opener against Mumbai Indians (MI). While his appearances were limited to only three matches in his first IPL stint, he has shone in this edition, chipping in with handy knocks in his seven matches. With a previous best of 52 against Gujarat Titans, he has pushed the boundaries with this instant classic. Accompanied by the more experienced wicketkeeper-batsman Karthik, Patidar spared none in a spectacular assault we clearly can’t get enough of!   

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A batter comfortable across formats, he averages over 37 in first-class cricket with six centuries under his belt. He also averages over 35 in list-A cricket with three centuries.