When Rajat Patidar leads Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) out for their second straight IPL final in Ahmedabad on Sunday, he will have the chance to join an elite list of captains who have won back-to-back IPL titles. But his route towards this peak has been remarkably different.When MS Dhoni completed the double for Chennai Super Kings in 2010-11, he had already established himself as a bona fide great, having led India to the T20 World Cup in 2007 and taking them to the top of the Test rankings in 2009.By the time Rohit Sharma led Mumbai Indians to consecutive titles in 2019-20, he was already a multiple-time IPL-winning captain, an Asia Cup-winning India skipper, and the man who had lit up the 2019 ODI World Cup with a record five centuries.Patidar, in comparison, last played for India in early 2024, and was dropped after poor returns in three Tests. He hasn’t come close to national selection since. Yet, the sheer weight of his runs at IPL 2026 – 486 runs at a strike rate of 196.76 – has brought him back into conversations for a T20I spot.
This is why RCB handing him the captaincy in early 2025 felt like such a massive leap of faith. He was tasked to accomplish what legends like Rahul Dravid, Kevin Pietersen, Anil Kumble, Daniel Vettori and Virat Kohli couldn’t.
Having led them to a title last year, Patidar now has the chance to carve his legacy. With Diageo in the process of transferring ownership to a new consortium – in a sale that had many astounded at the valuation – Ahmedabad could well be the setting for the end of an era and the start of a new one.
It was in Dharamsala two years ago that Patidar was first asked about the prospects of leading RCB. Then, when director Mo Bobat and coach Andy Flower invited him to a review meeting in June that year, they were seriously considering him for captaincy, but it wasn’t a done deal. They asked him to put on the captaincy hat and identify a core issue they needed to fix.
Patidar could have easily talked up leadership jargon and cliches, like culture, unity, leading from the front, etc. Instead, he said: “We need to build a gun pace attack.” For the management, this was one of the earliest indicators that Patidar was captaincy material.
Rajat Patidar will be leading RCB in their second successive IPL final•Getty Images
The visual evidence came during Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024-25, when he led Madhya Pradesh to the final. It helped that he had a coach in Chandrakant Pandit, who had long believed Patidar possessed leadership qualities. Patidar also finished as the competition’s second-highest run-getter. More impressively, he struck those runs at 186.08, showing captaincy didn’t weigh on his batting.Venkatesh Iyer, his current RCB teammate who is also part of the Madhya Pradesh set-up, saw more than a glimpse of Patidar’s thought processes as captain then.
“I enjoyed playing under him,” Iyer said during the latest Ranji Trophy season. “He kept things simple in the dressing room. There was not a lot of unnecessary pep talks or meetings. Just basic tactics and plans he wanted us to stick to. For me, keeping things simple means trusting your personnel. If you know people can deliver, there is no point complicating things.
“Like, if you have a Bhuvneshwar Kumar who can get wickets early, there is no point decoding things. You just trust your boy to do the job. That is what I feel he does. No one can decode what he thinks, but I see he trusts his boys and lets them be who they are.”
Flower and Bobat followed the 2024-25 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaign closely. By January 2025, their minds were largely made up. They sought Kohli’s nod; he gave them wholehearted backing. Patidar was then formally appointed in February 2025.
“He lives in a quiet corner of Indore. During the off-season, you won’t know what he is up to even if he is in the city. He is a chilled-out, laid-back character”
Venkatesh Iyer on Rajat Patidar
That exchange at RCB’s review meeting was a glimpse of Patidar’s thought process as captain: clear, uncomplicated and the willingness to say things as he sees them. “I am calm, I am not very expressive as a person,” Patidar said at a media event. “You can’t read anything by looking at my face. It’s not like I am putting on an act. That is just my nature.”
Iyer vouches for these attributes. The two grew up playing club cricket at Indore’s Vijay Club. Both have different personalities – Iyer is outgoing, while Patidar is more reserved – but the two bonded over their partnerships in the middle. And over time, there’s a friendship the two have developed that goes beyond cricket.
That, of course, didn’t mean anything during the IPL 2026 auction. Because Iyer couldn’t read anything from Patidar’s face.
“We were in Pune, and I was bugging him, ‘What’s the scene? Is RCB going to go for me?’ He would not utter a word. He kept saying, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know.’ Then after I was picked, he knocked at my door and said, ‘Yeah, welcome.’ I was like, ‘Boss, I wouldn’t have had so much stress had you told me earlier.'”
The story perfectly captured a trait team-mates repeatedly mention about Patidar. The calm exterior rarely changes, and the poker face gives you no inkling of what he’s thinking.
Rajat Patidar hasn’t let the captaincy weigh on his batting•BCCI
Off the field, Patidar is his own man, hardly consumed by external noise. “He lives in a quiet corner of Indore,” Iyer said. “During the off-season, you won’t know what he is up to even if he is in the city. He is a chilled-out, laid-back character.”
Jitesh Sharma, another RCB player who comes from Central Zone, speaks of the unique bond he shares with Patidar. “We’re two small-town boys,” he said. “When we’re together, the talk isn’t about flashy cars or watches. It’s about life. He has a small group of friends who he trusts and is comfortable with.
“In a large gathering, you will see him sitting comfortably in a quiet corner. And one eye contact is enough for us both to quietly escape whenever we should. Similarly, when we’re on the field, it’s often just one glance, as if to say, ‘Jeetu, review lena hai kya? [Jeetu, should we take the review?] I’ll nod, and he’ll signal.”
A small glimpse into Patidar’s ability to compartmentalise things came from a small incident on the eve of the IPL 2025 final.
“After we finished training and his pre-final media commitments in the stadium, we had a few friends and family over,” Jitesh said. “All of us stepped out to have pani puri on the streets at night. Looking at him, you couldn’t have known he was going to play the biggest match of his career yet in the next few hours.”
“We’re two small-town boys. When we’re together, the talk isn’t about flashy cars or watches. It’s about life”
Jitesh Sharma on his bond with Rajat Patidar
AB de Villiers, Patidar’s RCB team-mate in his debut season, 2021, perhaps summed up the transformation best the other night on commentary. When the RCB management first floated Patidar’s name internally as a captaincy option, de Villiers – an RCB hall of famer – was among those consulted for feedback.
“Good choice,” he told them. “But I haven’t really seen him speak.”
That, in many ways, was Patidar’s early challenge as a leader, which he now seems to have embraced. He was never the alpha figure, nor was he the life of the party. He rarely dominates conversations at huddles, nor is he constantly beside the coaches, seeking opinions from the dugout. Yet, over the past two seasons, the RCB management has increasingly discovered that Patidar perhaps does his best thinking once the game begins.
There is a noticeable demarcation of roles, something Bobat alluded to in a recent conversation. Patidar trusts the management to shape the environment around him; the management trusts him to control the game once the players cross the boundary line.
“He wants to have an input on the team that takes the field,” Bobat said. “And then he thinks that when he crosses the line, that’s when his job starts. He has got a stronger sense 1780254510 of how he wants the team to play. He is certainly becoming an even better decision-maker out in the middle when it comes to tactics and bowling changes.”
Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma hold the IPL trophy up for the fans•Associated Press
That clarity has increasingly reflected in Patidar’s tactical decisions.
It explains his unstinted backing of Jitesh through difficult phases, even when there may have been a temptation to alter the balance and experiment with Jordan Cox, given Phil Salt – the only other wicketkeeper – has spent large parts of the season injured.
It explains why, against Delhi Capitals with the game on the line, he chose to bowl out Bhuvneshwar and Josh Hazlewood before the 20th over instead of holding one of them back as insurance, and trusting Romario Shepherd instead. The move backfired, but the thinking behind it was unmistakable: Patidar wanted his best bowlers to close out the game earlier, rather than having to reflect on the what-ifs later.
And it perhaps explained another moment in Qualifier 1 against Gujarat Titans. With the chase effectively over, Patidar still handed Shepherd the ball. Rahul Tewatia briefly tore into the bowling, but Patidar wasn’t worried about a shrinking victory margin. To him, those overs for Shepherd – who was brought in as an Impact Player – could have given him some miles in the legs if he is required to bowl in the final.
His leadership instincts have remained consistent throughout: uncomplicated thinking, trust in personnel, and a willingness to stay committed to decisions even if they carry inherent risks. This perhaps explains de Villiers’ reaction after Qualifier 1, which felt particularly revealing.
Watching Patidar lead RCB into another final while also having produced one of the defining knocks of their season, de Villiers smiled on commentary and said: “Rajat. O Captain! My Captain!”
Four years ago, Patidar announced himself to the world by hitting the first century by an uncapped Indian in the playoffs. Four nights ago, he rose to the occasion by hitting an incredible 33-ball 93 not out to put RCB in the final. On Sunday, he has the chance to cement his legacy.
Shashank Kishore is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo
