Legendary Sunil Gavaskar hailed Rajat Patidar’s leadership after Royal Challengers Benglauru lifted their maiden IPL title by beating Punjab Kings by six runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
Patidar became the first RCB skipper to lead the franchise to glory and deserves all the praise. The 32-year-old was able to get the best out of his players in his maiden season as RCB’s captain.
Gavaskar said Patidar didn’t have any ego and led the franchise with aplomb to get the positive result. Patidar scored 312 runs in 15 matches at an average of 24 and a strike rate of 143.77 in IPL 2025.
“His captaincy has been extremely impressive. At times, you have slight hesitation in your mind when you have so many superstar players in your team, as to whether you will be able to manage them. However, the way he has developed this team and gotten the support from the superstars, you come to know that he has leadership qualities,” Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
Gavaskar noted that Patidar was going to senior players for inputs and delivered as a leader for RCB.
“He didn’t have any ego. He was going to the senior players and discussing with them what needed to be done. It was evident from the way he was asking that he didn’t have any ego. A captain should never have any ego. He has to be doing what is good for the team, and he did exactly that,” the former India opener added.
On the other hand, Harbhajan Singh said Patidar was in total command as captain of the franchise. Patidar was spot on with his field placements and bowling changes.
“Fantastic, what could have been better than this? In your first season, you won the trophy for a team that had waited for it for so many years. It’s important how the captain manages the team, and the way he managed the team, he was in total command,” he said.
The Turbanator recalled how Shreyas Iyer’s Mumbai and Rajat Patidar’s Madhya Pradesh had faced each other in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final.
“The same two captains were against each other in domestic cricket. Shreyas Iyer won in that final. God said he had made Shreyas win that day, so he had to make Patidar win today. I feel they should make Patidar the captain for the next five to seven years because he has won the trophy now. Nothing bigger than this had ever happened,” Harbhajan observed.
RCB will celebrate their IPL 2025 win in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
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