Rajat Patidar guides RCB to IPL 2025 final in debut captaincy season — the leadership traits behind his success.
In the last 72 hours, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have gone through a roller-coaster journey. During the 16th over of the chase against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on May 27, they were not confirmed to finish in the top two. Meanwhile, they have silently progressed into the final of the IPL 2025 after beating Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Qualifier 1 under Rajat Patidar’s captaincy.
When the management declared Patidar as this season’s new RCB captain, many raised questions. The Indore-born has a successful CV of carrying his Madhya Pradesh side to the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024/25 final against Mumbai. But was that enough to lead Bengaluru and gel with such a passionate fan base?
Rajat Patidar’s leadership- a balanced mixture of MS Dhoni & Virat Kohli
Four weeks after the start of the tournament, nobody had any questions about Patidar’s leadership. At the end of their victory in the first qualifier in Mullanpur, his ‘one more game and let’s celebrate together’ message brought new excitement among the fans.
Leading Madhya Pradesh to the SMAT 2024/25 final displays how the 31-year-old could handle various situations in the shortest format. However, an upgrade from the domestic event to the IPL was always a challenge. Even many international captains found the transition difficult to cope up with in the past.
However, that isn’t the case with Rajat, who didn’t look flustered in the field. It’s a balanced mixture of MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, where Patidar brings both calmness and aggression to the table. Even when a fielder fumbles a catch, he doesn’t react rudely but rather shows confidence in the individual.
Captaincy is never an easy job, especially when a leader has someone like Virat Kohli on the side. He will always try to engage and contribute with different plans. Patidar has balanced it beautifully this season. He would take the advice, but on most occasions, he looked to execute his original plans.
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Rajat Patidar’s constant change of plans
It’s essential for a leader to constantly remain active in the game with various changes in plans. Rajat Patidar was up to the mark on many occasions. At the beginning of the tournament, he was starting with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood. Yash Dayal was coming into the attack for one over in the powerplay.
However, he changed the plan in the middle of the event. Suddenly, Dayal starts to open the bowling, with Hazlewood coming as the first change.
Most captains don’t give an extra over to their premier pacer even after getting wickets. But Rajat Patidar is different; he wants to kill the game instantly. He kept the Australia pacer into the attack for three overs during the first qualifier, and that decision resulted in the wickets of PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer and Josh Inglis.
The Sydney-born, who has now dismissed Iyer four times in T20s at an average of below three, found the outside edge. In his next over, he bounced out Inglis, who got dismissed twice to the pacer in six T20 deliveries.
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Rajat Patidar’s confidence in young bowlers
Putting confidence among the young bowlers is another role the best captains play. Patidar shines in that department too. During RCB’s fixture against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, he gave Dayal the role of depending 15 runs with MS Dhoni at the crease.
Even after being nailed for a six on the no ball, Patidar looked calm and asked the bowled to execute his plans. That brought an invisible spirit in the bowler as the left-arm pacer carried them to victory.
After the auction, many pundits questioned if Bengaluru had the best spin bowling attack. But Patidar used both Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma smartly. The latter wasn’t in good form before the playoffs. Most captains would have dropped him, but Patidar continued with the leg spinner.
As a result, the Delhi-born bagged the Player of the Match award for his figures of 3/17 during the first qualifier. On the other hand, Krunal is RCB’s second leading wicket-taker of the campaign so far. The left-arm spinner has recorded 15 scalps at an economy rate of 8.61 in 14 innings.
Meanwhile, with the bat, Patidar has gone through a decent season with 286 runs in 13 innings at a strike rate of 142.29. Undoubtedly, he has struggled in the last eight innings to collect only 100 runs. It’s only about finding the right timing and rhythm in the game.
As of now, whatever Patidar touched has turned into gold. But, the biggest challenge starts now. The eyes are on a trophy that they, as a team, have failed to grab on the last three occasions. It’s about holding the nerves during the IPL 2025 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Rajat Patidar won’t be alone that evening; he will shoulder the hopes of a huge RCB fanbase around the globe.
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