Rajat Patidar, a newcomer to Royal Challenger Banglore, was quick to establish himself in the playing XI for the IPL 2021 season. After demonstrating his worth in the team’s pre-tournament practice games, the Indore native has established himself as one of the team’s most reliable players. Patidar appeared in four of RCB’s seven games but was unable to make an impact. The right-handed batsman finished with a total of 71 runs, with the best score of 31.
Before having a chance to play in the cash-rich tournament, the youngster had always admired the RCB squad. He revealed how nervous he was while meeting Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers for the first time during a one-on-one session with the franchise.
“RCB has always been my favourite team because of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli. Luckily, I got a chance to play with them. I was nervous before meeting them, but I liked it a lot after coming here,” Rajat said in an interview with RCB.
He hit a critical 31 against the Delhi Capitals in Ahmedabad, helping his team to a thrilling one-run victory. He batted alongside Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers after RCB lost two early wickets during his time at the crease.
He said the following about his talk with the two game’s stalwarts, “ We talked about the match situation and how we can play while being calculative. We knew if we do that right, we can overcome the pressure situation. That is what we were talking about.”
“At that time, there was just one name – Sachin Tendulkar. It all started because of him. And then slowly, when I started playing, I started following others like Rahul Dravid, and, from the current lot, I like Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli a lot. I have different idols in different formats,” Rajat said.
Started his career as a spin bowler before becoming a top-order batsman. His coaches were the ones who told him that he had some bat potential. The youngster said that batting legend Sachin Tendulkar inspired him to begin playing cricket.
