Ahmedabad, June 4
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) head coach Andy Flower was all praise for captain Rajat Patidar for calmness in carrying out the "tricky job" of captaining RCB and leading the team to their maiden IPL title.
This was the first time Patidar was leading an IPL team while his previous leadership experience was leading Madhya Pradesh to the final of the 2024/25 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. On his first rodeo as the franchise's skipper, he ended RCB's long wait of 18 years to get their hands on the trophy by beating Punjab Kings (PBKS) by six runs in the title clash.
"One of the most impressive things about what Rajat has done this year is, as an inexperienced captain, that he hasn't been affected by it. I don't think it has affected his batting because I've watched him really closely as a character, and he is still the lovely, gentle, polite Rajat Patidar that we knew last year. He hasn't changed at all in that regard," Flower said in a post-match press conference.
"Captaining RCB is a really tricky job. If I cast my mind back to how poorly I captained when I was his age, I've got tremendous respect for how he's held himself with all that scrutiny and captained some big players. You can't underestimate the calmness he showed in leading some really big players, a really big franchise, making good decisions out there in the middle under the pressure that RCB players play under. So I've got tons of respect for him," he added.