Rajat Patidar has scored 1,597 runs in 56 IPL matches at a strike rate of 165.14 — including a 93* off 33 balls in the IPL 2026 Qualifier 1 that helped RCB post 254/5, the highest total ever in a playoff game. The Indore batter came into IPL as an injury replacement for ₹20 lakh in 2022. He leaves this season as a ₹11-crore captain with a title ring and a playoff record nobody in the tournament can match.
Quick Answer — Rajat Patidar IPL Career
Rajat Patidar (born 1 June 1993, Indore) bats right-handed for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Career IPL: 1,597 runs in 56 matches, avg 33.97, SR 165.14, HS 112* (2022 Eliminator vs LSG). Retained at ₹11 crore ahead of IPL 2026. IPL 2026 season: 486 runs at avg 44.18, SR 196.76 — the best of his career.
हिन्दी: राजत पाटीदार ने IPL करियर में 56 मैचों में 1,597 रन बनाए हैं — 165.14 की स्ट्राइक रेट और एकमात्र प्लेऑफ शतक (2022 एलिमिनेटर) के साथ।
From Indore to RCB Captaincy — Career Story
Rajat Manohar Patidar grew up in Indore playing Madhya Pradesh age-group cricket on uneven outfields before he ever saw an IPL ground. He’s 6 ft 3 in, hits the ball late, and plays most of his power through the leg-side — a combination that took him years of domestic grind to translate into consistent T20 output. RCB first bought him at a ₹20-lakh base price for IPL 2021. He managed 71 runs across four games and was released at season’s end. He went unsold at the 2022 auction — one of those quiet moments that could easily have ended his IPL story before it began.
Instead, it started. When Luvnith Sisodia got injured mid-tournament in 2022, RCB brought Patidar back on a replacement contract for the same ₹20 lakh. He scored 333 runs in eight appearances including the innings that made the entire country take notice: 112* off 54 balls against Lucknow Super Giants in the 2022 Eliminator, reaching his hundred in just 49 deliveries. He became the first uncapped player to score a century in an IPL playoff. RCB went into Qualifier 2. Patidar became irreplaceable overnight. A heel injury wiped out his 2023 season entirely, but he returned in 2024 to post 395 runs across 13 innings at a strike rate of 177.13 — five fifties, all scored above 150 strike rate, three of them above 200.
The 2025 off-season brought the biggest call of all: RCB retained him for ₹11 crore and handed him the captaincy. Under pressure from fans who questioned the choice — Virat Kohli was still in the squad — Patidar delivered. He led RCB to their first-ever IPL title in 2025, ending an 18-year franchise drought by beating Punjab Kings in the final. In 2026, now a defending champion, he’s batting like a man with nothing to prove and everything to protect — 486 runs this season, his best ever, with a strike rate of 196.76 that belongs more to the death-overs slot than the No. 3 position.
📊 The Number Nobody Is Talking About
Patidar’s overall IPL average — 33.97 — looks solid but not spectacular. Narrow it to playoff matches alone and you get something extraordinary: six innings, 338 runs, average 112.66, strike rate 193.14. Only Suresh Raina (40 sixes), MS Dhoni (28), and Kieron Pollard (25) have hit more sixes in IPL knockouts than Patidar’s 24. His 93* off 33 in the 2026 Qualifier 1 also set the highest strike rate for a captain in any fifty-plus IPL score: 281.81. When RCB need a match-defining knock in a knockout, it isn’t Virat Kohli their captain turns to — it IS the captain. That’s a rare and under-valued quality in T20 franchise cricket.
Rajat Patidar IPL Career — Season by Season
| Season | Team | M | Runs | Avg | SR | 50s / 100s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | RCB | 4 | 71 | 17.75 | ~114 | 0 / 0 |
| 2022 | RCB | 8 | 333 | 55.50 | 152.75 | 2 / 1 |
| 2023 | RCB | — (heel injury, season missed) — | ||||
| 2024 | RCB | 13 | 395 | 30.38 | 177.13 | 5 / 0 |
| 2025 | RCB | 17 | 312 | ~22 | ~148 | 3 / 0 |
| 2026* | RCB | 14 | 486 | 44.18 | 196.76 | 5+ / 0 |
*2026 includes IPL 2026 Qualifier 1 (93* vs GT, 26 May 2026). 2025 avg/SR approximate.
The Defining Innings — 112* Off 54 Balls, 25 May 2022
The 2022 Eliminator in Kolkata is the anchor of everything that followed. RCB chased 154 — not a daunting target — but the occasion was knockout cricket, and Patidar had played just five games all season before that night. He opened the innings, took 22 balls to reach 33, then exploded. He hit Krunal Pandya and Ravi Bishnoi for four sixes and four fours in a 22-ball assault that scored 58 runs at a strike rate of 263.63. His hundred came in 49 balls, equalling Wriddhiman Saha’s record for the fastest playoff century in IPL history. RCB won by 14 runs. An uncapped batter playing on a ₹20-lakh replacement contract had carried one of the richest franchises in cricket into the next knockout round. Four years and a title later, he’s still doing it.
The second defining knock came on 26 May 2026 at HPCA Stadium Dharamsala: 93* off 33 balls in Qualifier 1 against Gujarat Titans. He came in at 94/3 with RCB three down inside the powerplay, added 95 runs in 45 balls with Krunal Pandya, and finished with nine sixes in a 281.81 strike-rate assault that is the highest ever recorded by a captain in a fifty-plus IPL innings. RCB ended on 254/5 — the highest total in any IPL playoff in the tournament’s history. Dharamsala saw Patidar’s second big-match chapter written in real time.
Records Held — Patidar’s IPL Cabinet
🏆 Rajat Patidar’s IPL Records
First uncapped player to score a playoff century: 112* vs LSG, 2022 Eliminator. Joint-fastest IPL playoff hundred: 49 balls, equalling Wriddhiman Saha’s 2014 Finals record. Highest captain strike rate in a fifty-plus IPL score: 281.81 (93* off 33 vs GT, Q1 2026). Fastest Indian to 200 T20 sixes: reached the milestone in 105 innings, per official broadcast data.
IPL 2026 — Patidar’s Current Form
The 2026 season is the best Patidar has batted in his IPL life, by every metric that matters. At 44.18 with a strike rate of 196.76 across 14 matches, he isn’t just scoring — he’s accelerating at a rate that places him among the most destructive top-order batters in the tournament this season. Check the IPL 2026 Orange Cap standings to see where he ranks among the season’s leading run-scorers. His 93* in the Qualifier 1 helped RCB post 254/5, and RCB scored 200-plus in nine of their matches this season — joint most by any team in T20 tournament history. His 2025 campaign was comparatively flat (~312 runs, avg ~22) but he delivered when the title was on the line. That pattern — dipping in the league, rising in the knockouts — is the recurring thread of his career.
Patidar — League Stage
- 56 innings (career), ~1,259 league-stage runs
- Average: ~26 (league matches)
- Strike rate: ~158 (league stage)
- Centuries: 0 in league play
Patidar — Playoff Stage
- 6 playoff innings, 338 runs
- Average: 112.66
- Strike rate: 193.14
- Centuries: 1 (+ two other 50-plus scores)
Patidar is the most underrated captain in IPL history and it isn’t particularly close. He inherited a franchise that had choked in finals twice, lost their best-known leader, and carried the weight of 18 years of near-misses — then won it all in year one. His batting average won’t make him a legend on the almanac. His 33.97 is not going to be cited alongside Kohli or Warner. But what he’s built as a playoff performer — an average of 112.66 across six knockout innings — is a body of evidence that almost no IPL batter has produced at the same intensity. Rohit Sharma wins finals. Dhoni wins finals. Patidar shows up when a franchise needs to survive, not just when they need to win. That’s a different and harder skill.
The one caveat: his league-stage numbers in 2025 were concerning enough that sections of the RCB fanbase were calling him “the fraud” mid-tournament. They weren’t entirely wrong — he was averaging below 22 while his captaincy was under scrutiny. The 2026 season has answered that. At 44.18 for the season and 196.76 strike rate, the question now isn’t whether he can bat — it’s whether RCB will reach the final and give him his biggest stage yet.
Rajat Patidar IPL Stats — FAQs
How many runs does Rajat Patidar have in IPL?
Rajat Patidar has scored 1,597 runs in 56 IPL matches at an average of 33.97 and a strike rate of 165.14, including one century and 14 fifties. His highest score is 112* vs Lucknow Super Giants in the 2022 Eliminator. In IPL 2026, he has 486 runs at a strike rate of 196.76 — the best of his career.
Which IPL team does Rajat Patidar play for?
Rajat Patidar plays for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and has been with them since his debut in 2021. He was retained at ₹11 crore ahead of the 2025 season and appointed captain, leading RCB to their maiden IPL title. He was retained again for IPL 2026 at the same price.
What is Rajat Patidar’s highest score in IPL?
Patidar’s IPL highest score is 112* (not out), scored off 54 balls against Lucknow Super Giants in the 2022 IPL Eliminator at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. He reached his hundred in just 49 deliveries, becoming the first uncapped player to score a century in an IPL playoff. His next-highest IPL score is 93* off 33 balls, scored in the 2026 Qualifier 1 vs Gujarat Titans at HPCA Stadium, Dharamsala.
Has Rajat Patidar won the Orange Cap?
Rajat Patidar has not won the IPL Orange Cap, which goes to the leading run-scorer of a season. His best season by volume is IPL 2026 with 486 runs, though the Orange Cap race is extremely competitive. Check the live IPL 2026 Orange Cap standings for the current leader.
How much was Rajat Patidar bought for in the IPL auction?
Patidar’s IPL auction journey is one of the sport’s better underdog stories. He was bought for ₹20 lakh in 2021, went unsold at the 2022 auction, returned as an injury replacement for ₹20 lakh, and was retained by RCB for ₹11 crore ahead of both the 2025 and 2026 seasons — a 550x jump in price across four years.
Bottom Line
Rajat Patidar is the player IPL 2022 discovered, 2023 tried to take away, and 2025 turned into a title-winning captain. His career average of 33.97 doesn’t tell the real story — his playoff average of 112.66 across six knockout innings does. The RCB franchise spent 18 seasons searching for a player who could deliver in the moments that matter most. They found him for ₹20 lakh. Follow his ongoing 2026 season through the IPL 2026 points table and the Orange Cap live tracker.
