Rajat Patidar not bothered about India T20I call, focus solely on RCB-GT final showdown in Ahmedabad

Patidar said he lives in the moment and that he isn't thinking about anything else other than winning the final on Sunday.

Updated on: May 30, 2026, 19:23:09 IST

Written by Prateek Srivastava

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Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Rajat Patidar lives in his own world and at present nothing is distracting him other than the aim of winning the Indian Premier League for the second successive time.

Rajat Patidar has an monkish air about him. (PTI)

RCB play Gujarat Titans in the 2026 final showdown at Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday and on the eve of the match the RCB captain addressed the media. When asked if he was hoping to be selected in the Indian team for the upcoming away T20Is against Ireland and England, Patidar answered in the negative. He didn't beat around the bush and came up with the good, old-fashioned “no”.

Also Read: Has Shubman Gill done enough to earn a T20I recall ahead of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi?

“No, I am not looking forward to the possibility of getting selected for those tours [in June and July],” Patidar, whose exceptional 93 not out helped RCB beat Shubman Gill's GT in the first qualifier earlier this week, said.

GT's top-three has been in exceptional form this IPL season. Openers Gill and Sai Sudharsan have scored upwards of 700 runs. No.3 Jos Buttler has done very well too. Patidar acknowledged their impressive impressive showing but said RCB had made plans them. “Yes, their top-order is quite good. But we have some plans. We just need to execute them tomorrow,” he said.

Patidar living in the moment!

Only twice in the history of the league, a captain has won back-to-back trophies. Mahendra Singh Dhoni did it for Chennai Super Kings in 2010 and 2011. Then Rohit Sharma did it in 2019 and 2020 for Mumbai Indians. If Patidar wins it tomorrow, he will join the league of extraordinary gentlemen. However, he didn't sound excited at the prospect. “I don't think about these things. Who has done what before me, I am not competing with anyone. I live in the moment. I am only focusing on tomorrow's game” he said.

The first qualifier was played this past Tuesday which means RCB have had some good rest. Their opponent GT, on the other hand, have been in action one more time since, and that was on Friday night, when they beat RR. When asked if RCB are better placed in light of the full four days' rest compared to GT, Patidar answered in the affirmative. “Of course, we have some advantage on that front since we have had time to rest and recover. GT are coming into this game kind of right after their Qualifier 2. So, there is some advantage but but it's not that big. Both teams are pretty good and have played some good cricket,” he said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prateek Srivastava
Prateek Srivastava is a senior sports journalist having been in the profession for two decades now. He started his print career with the India Today Group and later also worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, sensing the wind of change, he switched to the digital media and joined Mobile ESPN. There, he covered the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2010 Hockey World Cup as a venue reporter. He did plenty of voice-over work too, over there. After leaving Mobile ESPN, Prateek went on to work for Cricketnext, Gocricket and Cricbuzz. At Gocricket (Times Internet Limited), he covered the 2014 T20 World from Bangladesh. There he also received a team leadership award, given at the end of the month. Prateek has also covered the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, this time working for Sportz Interactive. He also worked for Chinese giants Alibaba over two years and led their ""Short News"" content team at UC Browser. While cricket is Prateek’s expertise, he has also done a lot of golf. In fact, he has covered India’s first two European Tour events back in the late noughties. He has also done extensive writing on football having been associated with the Indian Super League for three seasons. Finally, Prateek is a literature aficionado and swears by Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and when he doesn’t joke, he is usually quiet and at work.Read More

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