When the Ajit Agarkar-led BCCI selection committee announced India's squad for the T20I series against Ireland and England and the subsequent Asian Games campaign, fans were surprised to see them in-form. Rajat Patidar Is being ignored.
Last month, Patidar became the third captain to win consecutive IPL titles. MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma had achieved the feat while leading Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians respectively. During IPL 2026, Patidar led from the front, scoring crucial runs in the middle overs and winning many games for his team. Ultimately, he scored an impressive record of 501 runs in 15 matches at an average of 41.75 and a strike rate of 192.69. This includes five half-centuries.
Days after the team selection, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) took to social media to take a dig at the selectors for not picking their captain Patidar. The two-time champions posted figures similar to Patidar's since 2024, such as his tally of 1208 runs with 12 half-centuries in 41 innings. He also added some of his records, such as hitting 89 sixes in that period, the most by any Indian non-opening batsman; A strike rate of 172.57, the highest by an Indian non-opening batsman (minimum 500-plus runs); And in IPL 2026, 74.25% of the runs came from the boundary, the highest by an Indian middle-order batsman.
After the announcement of the teams, chief selector Ajit Agarkar was asked whether his team had discussed Patidar's name in the selection meeting.
“We discussed a lot of players. We feel these 15 are eligible. There are a lot of good players in India. There are a lot of players who are good enough to be in the team, but the players who are playing are performing as well as they can. We feel we have picked a good team. There will always be a shortage of players, but we have picked a good team and we are happy with that,” Agarkar said, explaining Patidar's absence in the team.
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