IPL: Does Rajat Patidar have it in him to lead an upswing in RCB fortunes?

At 31 years, Rajat Patidar is not exactly a spring chicken and the newly appointed captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore has the task cut out for him in the upcoming IPL 2025. He may still have the shoulders of the inspirational Virat Kohli to lean on – but the Madhya Pradesh captain knows that it will be his head on the chopping block if he fails to bring about a significant change of fortunes for the franchise which has flattered to deceive many a times.

What is surprising about the choice of Patidar as leader is that there haven’t been too many precedents like him – who is essentially an achiever in domestic cricket but a persona non grata at the international level – given the hot seat in IPL. He has been a failure in the three Tests on his debut against England at home last year and is not even in the national T20 reckoning, but the ownership went for him once Kohli refused to take over the responsibility for the second time.

The leadership vacuum was waiting to happen in RCB after they installed an ageing Faf du Plessis for the last cycle. The 40-year-old South African was released before the last mega auction and Kohli, who led the Challengers for nine years without success before stepping down ahead of the 2022 season, reportedly turned down feelers to be the captain again.

No doubt, there will be a huge question mark over Patidar’s leadership qualities under pressure – though he has led his state in both Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (T20) and Vijay Hazare Trophy (ODI). He guided MP to the SMAT final where they lost to Mumbai by five wickets last year, while he was also the second-highest run-getter in the premier domestic T20 tournament behind Ajinkya Rahane - scoring 428 from 10 matches at an average of 61 and a strike rate of 186.08.

It may seem like a last throw of the dice for RCB, but a decision which can be interpreted as a well thought out one to honour an Indian player’s commitment and loyalty. Ever since his IPL debut for the #PlayBold Army in 2021, Patidar has scored 799 runs at a strike rate of 158.55 in 27 games for RCB and he was one of the three retentions ahead of the mega auction at Rs 11 crores apart from Kohli and Yash Dayal.

 Patidar was once released from the squad ahead of the 2022 season and went unsold at the auctions. However, an injury to Luvinth Sisodia gave Patidar a lifeline as a replacement for RCB when he scored 333 runs in eight innings, including a century.

Did the player himself see the challenge coming? Patidar told the RCB website: ‘’Last year, I think it was Mo [Bobat, RCB director of cricket] who I spoke to about this. Mo asked me: are you interested in doing captaincy? So I told him, before doing captaincy for RCB, I’d like to have captaincy of the state team. So from there I got a hint that I could get captaincy. So along with that, I was a little happy that from where I started my IPL career and now that I look at it, I can feel that journey quite well."

 Kohli, in a video message for the RCB fans, said Patidar has earned the right to captain RCB. ‘’Of course, it’s a big responsibility. I’ve done this for many years. And Faf's done it for the last few years. And to be seen as the guy who will take this franchise forward, I'm sure it's a huge honour for you. And I'm very, very happy for you. You have earned the right to be in this position. And I’m sure you'll grow from strength to strength. I've seen Rajat evolve as a player over the last couple of years. He’s got the chance to play for India,’’ he added.

 After Patidar’s anointment, eight of the 10 teams have now named their captains – barring champions Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals. Will there be few more surprises round the corner?