Rajat Patidar Virat Kohli. Image Credits: AFP
The Indian national selectors announced India’s squads for the upcoming tour of Ireland and the Asian Games on Saturday afternoon in the midst of the India-Afghanistan Test. Shreyas Iyer’s appointment as the new captain of the team has taken over the headlines, and deservedly so.
He has not only replaced Suryakumar Yadav as captain but also as a player in the squad. But another notable thing in the team was the non-selection of the two-time IPL-winning captain Rajat Patiar. He had also done well in the middle order, outperforming Shreyas Iyer in the most runs leaderboard at a significantly higher strike rate.
Agarkar explains Rajat Patidar’s non-selection
As the squads were announced, the questions over Patidar’s snub were inevitably raised. The RCB skipper had not only outperformed Iyer with the bat but also as the captain over the last two campaigns.
Since the start of IPL 2025, PBKS had only beaten Rajat Patidar’s RCB once in five matches. RCB’s wins include the Qualifier 1 and the final of IPL 2025, making Patidar a good candidate to be a successor to Suryakumar Yadav’s throne.
Upon being questioned about Rajat Patidar, Ajit Agarkar, the chairman of selectors, did not particularly explain the snub and gave a vague answer.
“We discussed a host of players. We think these 15 are deserving. A lot of good players in India. Plenty who are good enough to walk into the team, but the guys playing are doing as well as they can. We think we've picked good squads. Always will have players missing out, but we've picked a good squad, happy with this one,” he said.
Also Read: Why Tilak Varma Replaced Axar Patel As India Vice Captain? BCCI Reveals
Rajat Patidar in impeccable form
Since being appointed as the new RCB captain, Rajat Patidar has looked in a midas touch in the last two IPL seasons. In their two titles, only Virat Kohli has scored more runs than him, while Patidar still has a better strike rate.
Batting in the middle and death overs, Rajat Patidar has scored 813 runs in 28 innings at a strike rate of 170.44 in two titles. He missed three matches due to injuries but had a significant impact in the wins, scoring 7 fifties. In Qualifier 1 of IPL 2026, he scored a berserk 93* off 33 with five fours and 9 towering sixes to brush GT aside as well.
India's T20I squads:
India Squad for England and Ireland T20Is
Shreyas Iyer (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Isha Kishan (wk), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (vc), Nitish Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
India Squad for Asian Games 2026
Shreyas Iyer (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (vc), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Jasprit Bumrah.
Also Read: “Make Tendulkar Proud”- Twitter Reacts To Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s India Call Up At 15
