Rajat Patidar

Rajat Manohar Patidar (born 1 June 1993) is an Indian International cricketer. He is a right-handed top order batter and off-spinner. He plays for Madhya Pradesh in domestic cricket and for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League. On 21 December 2023, he made his international debut against South Africa.

Early life
Patidar was born on 1 June 1993 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. His father is a businessman. He joined a cricket club when he was 8 years old and was later enrolled into an academy by his grandfather. He started his career as a bowler and started concentrating on batting after his U-15 levels.

Education
Patidar attended New Digamber Public School in Indore where he completed his primary and secondary education. He later graduated from Indore University.

Domestic career
He made his first-class debut on 30 October 2015 in the 2015–16 Ranji Trophy. He made his Twenty20 debut for Madhya Pradesh in the 2017–18 Zonal T20 League on 8 January 2018.

He was the leading run-scorer for Madhya Pradesh in the 2018–19 Ranji Trophy, with 713 runs in eight matches. In August 2019, he was named in the India Blue team's squad for the 2019–20 Duleep Trophy.

In February 2021, Patidar was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (now Royal Challengers Bengaluru) in the IPL auction ahead of the 2021 Indian Premier League. He managed to score only 71 runs in the four games he played and was subsequently released ahead of the 2022 Indian Premier League.

Patidar went unsold in the 2022 IPL Player Auction. Later, Patidar was signed by Royal Challengers Bangalore mid-season as a replacement for the injured Luvnith Sisodia for INR 20 Lakhs. On 25 May 2022, in the Eliminator match in the 2022 Indian Premier League, Patidar scored a match winning knock of 112* (54) against Lucknow Super Giants. This proved to be a record-breaking innings for Patidar, as he became the first uncapped player to score a century in the playoffs stage of the Indian Premier League. This was also the joint-fastest century (49 balls) by a player in the playoffs stage, he equaled the record of Wridhiman Saha, who also scored a 49 ball century for the Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in the 2014 IPL Finals. Patidar ended the 2022 season with 333 runs scored in just 8 matches at an average of 55.50 with the help of a century and 2 half-centuries. Ahead of the 2023 Indian Premier League he was retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Additionally, he had an average of 55.50 and a strike rate of 152.75 and also played exceptionally well in the Ranji Trophy.

International career
As a result of a phenomenal domestic season and his performances in 2022 IPL season, Patidar was named in the One-Day International (ODI) squad for the series against South Africa in the month of October. Later in February 2023 he was named in the ODI squad against New Zealand as an injury replacement for Shreyas Iyer. However he failed to make it to the playing eleven on both the occasions.

He made his ODI debut on 21 December 2023 against South Africa, where he scored 22 runs in 16 balls.

In January 2024, he was named as a replacement for Virat Kohli in India's squad for the first two matches of the test series against England. He made his Test debut on 2 February 2024 in the second match of the series, scoring 32 and 9 runs in the first and second innings, respectively.