Former Australian skipper Michael Clarke reckons Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s captain Rajat Patidar must be considered for India’s T20I team after his stellar performances in IPL 2026. Patidar was able to lead RCB from the front and played a key role in taking the team to glory for the second time in a row.

The RCB captain amassed 501 runs in 14 innings at an average of 41.75 and a strike rate of 192.69 in the recently concluded season. Patidar took the attack on the opposition bowlers in the middle overs and made a huge difference with his aggressive approach.

Michael Clarke said on Beyond23 Cricket podcast, “Patidar had a stellar tournament again and is my player under the radar. Virat Kohli being in the team will always be the most spoken about player. But Patidar has done an exceptional job with the way he leads and gets the best out of all of his players. His own performance, batting in the tough middle order, has been fantastic. “

“Though he’s 31, there has to be a talk about him in the Indian T20 team. I don’t know if he will captain India, but he has leadership qualities. His middle-order batting has been phenomenal. Batting at No.4 is the hardest in T20s, and he comes in at the position and just explodes.”

Clarke said Patidar’s name should be at the top as far as India’s T20I selection is concerned.

“India has a lot of talent at the moment, and a number of them are fighting to get into the Indian team from this IPL. But if you captain a team that goes on to win back-to-back IPL tournaments, the BCCI and the Indian selectors must be talking about him. His name must be in front of the queue in T20s, and he could even be looked at in ODI cricket,” said Clarke (via the aforementioned source).

Patidar would look to carry the good form forward in domestic circuit.