A poor stint with Team India took him off track but the batter has found his game again
For a cricketer, there are few things worse than being unable to cash in on the rare opportunity at the international level after a long wait. Rajat Patidar is dealing with this disappointment after a poor run in his debut Test series this year.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Rajat Patidar celebrates after scoring a half-century (50 runs) during the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bengaluru(AFP)
What makes it even more difficult to digest is that he was given a decent enough run by the Indian team management, who played him in three Tests ahead of all the other newcomers.
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Selected for the home series against England on the basis of his good form in the India A games, the obvious reason for his lack of success seemed to be stage fright. After starting with a composed 32 in his maiden innings at Hyderabad, he surprisingly developed cold feet to average 10.50 in six innings. Nothing went right for him, getting out to some rank bad balls from spinners with most glaring example being the long hops from Tom Hartley in both innings at Rajkot.
His dream shattered, Patidar faced a tough challenge to sort out his game ahead of the 2024 IPL. But to recover from such a setback is never easy. He returned from his international sojourn low on confidence. It showed in his game. He simply couldn’t get going in the first few games — his run of scores read 0, 18, 3 and 29 in the first four outings.
The RCB think tank backed him fully though. It has now paid off. Starting with his 26-ball 50 against Mumbai Indians, Patidar has three fifties in his last four innings. He is now starting to resemble the batter who had scored that scintillating match-winning unbeaten 112 off 54 balls in the 2022 Eliminator against Lucknow Super Giants.
On Thursday, he proved to be the difference in RCB getting to a winning total of 206 against hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad to end their six-game losing streak. On a track where most of the batters struggled to get going, Patidar smashed five sixes to hit 50 off 20 deliveries.
The RCB batting unit with Patidar in good nick has a different feel about it. The middle-order batter takes the pressure off Virat Kohli and Faf Du Plessis. On Thursday, he made it easy for Kohli by stepping up the scoring rate when the senior pro was struggling in the middle overs.
At the 10-over mark, RCB were 94/2. Against the firepower of SRH, they were under pressure to do much more. Kohli was on 42 off 29 balls but he was still waiting for the support from the other end. It came from Patidar. Coming in at No 4, took the pressure off Kohli by going on a six-hitting spree to plunder 27 runs in the 11th over off Markande and provide the impetus to the innings. During their match-winning 65-run third wicket stand, it was the former who did the bulk of the scoring, contributing 50 of the runs against Kohli’s 14 off 14 balls.
With Glenn Maxwell sitting out, Patidar’s ability against spin makes him a key player in RCB’s middle order. He showed his quality against spinners Shahbaz Ahmed and Markande by hammering them for 40 off 12 balls compared to the rest of his teammates, who scored a combined score 15 off 24 balls against the spin duo.
And this wasn’t slogging. Rather, it was simple, clean hitting that has been the feature of Patidar’s game for a while now. Against Mumbai Indians, he smashed four sixes in his 26-ball 50; versus Kolkata Knight Riders, he smashed five sixes in his 52 off 23 balls.
Former RCB Director of Cricket Mike Hesson, an expert on JioCinema, hoped for Patidar to be given a second chance by the Indian team. “He (Patidar) has a lot of class. He is a fine player. Although he has not quite clicked for India yet, I hope he gets another opportunity, I am sure he will, he is a fine player,” said Hesson.
