Former Indian batter Manoj Tiwary praised Rajat Patidar after Royal Challengers Bengaluru registered a five-wicket win against Gujarat Titans in the IPL final against Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Sunday.
This is RCB’s second consecutive title and Patidar played an instrumental role in the team’s success. Patidar was once again able to lead from the front, scoring 501 runs in 14 innings at an average of 41.75 and a strike rate of 192.69 in the recently concluded season.
“Looking at him, it does not seem like pressure affects him. In teams like these, where there are so many stars, you tend to get overshadowed, but he has such good judgment and understanding at this age, that he does not let other things affect him. It is not easy when you have a player like Virat Kohli in your team, and other stars. It is easy to get lost among those names, but he assures that he’s there as well. He is not among those who will just sit back, he has a lot of trust and confidence in his game, and the kind of knocks he has played in the playoffs, just unbelievable,” Manoj Tiwary said on Cricbuzz.
The former Bengal cricketer tipped Patidar as one of the strong contenders to take India’s T20I captaincy.
“We often see Suryavanshi’s shots and ask how has he hit that. But Rajat Patidar had also struck some shots during Qualifier 1. After seeing such shots you realise that this player is different. I want to go one step further, can the selectors see him as a future India T20I captain? They can certainly consider him,” he added.
On the other hand, former Indian opener Virender Sehwag said the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel can not afford to ignore Patidar for India’s T20I team.
“You can ignore him for one year, but you cannot ignore him for two years. Even in the last season he had scored runs and won the trophy. He has done the same this year as well, so you cannot keep him away from the Indian T20I team for too long now. His self-confidence has improved even more since becoming captain. The kind of strike rate with which he has batted in the middle order, it might be that no one has done it this season,” Virender Sehwag said.
Patidar would aim to carry the good show in the domestic circuit.
