There are few things worse for a cricketer than having to wait a long time to take advantage of a golden opportunity to play for his country. After a dismal performance in his first Test series of the year, Rajat Patidar is coming to terms with this setback. The fact that the Indian team management gave him a respectable performance and played him in three Tests before any of the other new players makes his acceptance difficult. Although he was selected for the home series against England because of his brilliant performance in India
A game, it was clear that stage anxiety was the cause of his failure. He surprisingly lost his cool and averaged 10.50 in six innings in Hyderabad after opening with a cool 32 in his first innings. Nothing went well for him; he was hit by some really bad balls by the spinners, the most obvious example of this being Tom Hartley's long runs in both Rajkot's innings. After his goal was disallowed, Patidar had a tough task ahead of him to improve in 2024 in the Indian Premier League.
However, recovering from such a setback is never easy. He felt less confident after the trip abroad. It was evident in his performance. His scoring streak in the first four games was 0, 18, 3 and 29, suggesting that he was unable to get going early on. But the RCB think tank was in favour of him. Now it has proved beneficial. Patidar scored three fifties in his last four innings, starting with a 26-ball 50 against Mumbai Indians. Now he is starting to look like the player who made that thrilling 112 off 54 balls to win the match against Lucknow SuperGiants in the Eliminator 2022. He proved his worth on Thursday as RCB thrashed home team Sunrisers Hyderabad by 206 runs to snap a six-match losing streak. With most pacers finding it difficult to get on this track, Patidar smashed 50 off 20 deliveries with five sixes. When Patidar is healthy, RCB's batting line-up has a distinctive feel to it. The middle-order batsman will take some of the load off Faf Du Plessis and Virat Kohli. He made life easy for Kohli on Thursday by hitting a higher average as the veteran struggled in the middle overs.
After ten overs, RCB were 94/2. They had to do a lot more to counter SRH's firepower. Even though Kohli was on 42 off 29 balls, he was still waiting for help from behind. Originated in Patidar. Arriving at number four, he eased some of the strain on Kohli with a six-hitting 27-run knock against Markande in the eleventh over, adding momentum to the innings. The former did most of the scoring during his match-winning 65 for the third wicket, with 50 against 14 off 14 balls from Kohli.
Patidar is a vital member of RCB's middle order as he can counter the spin, especially when Glenn Maxwell is out. Against the spin combo of Shahbaz Ahmed and Markande, he demonstrated his superiority by hitting them for forty from just twelve balls, while the rest of his team managed a combined fifteen from twenty-four balls. JioCinema pundit and former Director of Cricket for Royal Bengal, Mike Hesson expressed hope that the Indian team will give Patidar another chance.
