Five interesting facts about the RCB’s new hero Rajat Patidar

Remember the name – Rajat Patidar. The name of a youngster who architected the first-ever win for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in an Eliminator of the Indian Premier League. Patidar is now the first-ever uncapped player to score a century in the IPL playoffs.

The name is echoing loudly in the cricketing realms since the Wednesday night as Rajat Patidar smashed a sensational century, scoring unbeaten 112 runs off 54 deliveries, including 12 boundaries and 7 maximums.

His extraordinary effort with the bat empowered RCB to topple LSG by 14 runs to reach the 2nd Qualifier of the Indian Premier League 2022. Not many people were aware of the youngster’s name before Wednesday night; hence, we will here talk about some unknown facts about Rajat Patidar’s life.

Rajat Patidar started his career as a fast bowler

The 28-year-old began his career as a pace bowler and aimed to become a pace-bowling all-rounder. However, in 2014, he suffered an ACL injury that jeopardized his career as a fast bowler. At this moment, he decided to turn into a batter and shifted his focus on the batting.

Rajat Patidar went unsold in the mega-auction for the IPL 2022

Would you believe that? The right-handed-batter failed to attract any bids in the mega auctions ahead of the IPL 2022 and went unsold. Patidar had a decent last season with the Royal Challengers Bangalore and many were expecting that the Reds will sign him in the auction but, they didn’t raise the paddle.

However, the destiny was already written and Royal Challengers Bangalore brought back the player to the system as an injury replacement for Luvnith Sisodia.

Rajat Patidar scored a fifty on his List-A debut; Ravindra Jadeja dismissed him

In December 2015, Patidar made his List-A debut against Saurashtra while representing Madhya Pradesh. Courtesy of twin centuries from Ravindra Jadeja and Sheldon Jackson, Saurashtra posted a mammoth total of 340/5 in 50 overs.

Chasing the total, Madhya Pradesh made a bright start with debutant Rajat Patidar scoring 53 runs off 40 deliveries. However, he could not continue for long as the Rockstar Jadeja dismissed him post his half-century.

Rajat Patidar smashed a hundred on his first-class debut

The right-handed batter had an even better start to his first-class career as he scored a magnificent century on his debut against Baroda. Patidar scored 60 runs in the first innings followed by 127-ball 101 in the 2nd innings. He helped Madhya Pradesh to secure an 87-run victory on his debut.

Rajat Patidar has always loved RCB because he is a fan of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers 

Patidar is a fan of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers; hence, he has always supported the Bangalore-based franchise. In an interview with the RCB last season, he said, “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.”

Now, with such a wonderful knock, Rajat Patidar has carved his name in the RCB’s history already. If he is able to create a legacy like Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers at the RCB, still remains to be seen.