Will Rajat Patidar Captain RCB In IPL Qualifier 1: Royal Challengers Bengaluru, before the start of IPL 2025, named Rajat Patidar as their captain for the coming season. The 31-year-old has some experience in captaincy, taking Madhya Pradesh to the final of the 2024-25 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

The middle-order batter did a good job leading the team for the first two-thirds of the season, putting them in a position where playoff qualification was feasible. In the 11 matches he captained, the new skipper led the team to eight wins and 16 points.

PBKS vs RCB: Will Rajat Patidar Captain RCB In IPL Qualifier 1?

However, for the last few matches, more specifically, since the IPL was halted and resumed, Patidar has not captained RCB. While he does play in the matches, he comes in as an Impact Player to bat and is not part of the playing XI for the entire match.

This is because Rajat sustained a finger injury while fielding in the match against the Chennai Super Kings on May 3, RCB’s last match before the league stoppage. It might be possible that Patidar would have to miss the last part of the tournament. But the forced break of the IPL, coupled with their match immediately after against KKR being washed off, provided him with crucial time to heal his finger to the level he could bat in every match.

“Rajat Patidar, for one, has given his right hand a little bit of time to settle after getting quite a bad knock. So, he is fit to bat, which is great,” said Flower.

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A day before the Royal Challengers’ match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on May 23, team coach Andy Flower confirmed that Rajat Patidar had fully recovered from his injury. But the subsequent matches have shown that the team is not taking any chances with their regular skipper, seeing that he is still not coming out in the bowling innings to field.

On the date of RCB’s Qualifier 1 against Punjab Kings, it will be a week from the day when Andy Flower claimed that Rajat Patidar was fully healed. And with the team having two chances to qualify for the final by playing Qualifier 1 for the first time since 2016, they would want their regular captain to take the field for the entire match.

In Patidar’s absence, wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma has been the acting skipper of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru and has done a decent job. In the two matches he has captained, RCB has lost one to SRH and won the one against LSG to confirm a top-two finish. In the match against LSG, Jitesh Sharma played a scintillating inning of 85* off 33 and was named the Player of the Match.

So, in conclusion, the team claims that Rajat Patidar has fully healed, and with them playing at least two matches in the IPL 2025 playoffs, Patidar should, ideally, return as the captain of the team. The only case where that does not happen is where the injury was worse than anticipated or has since been aggravated.

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