Rajat Patidar added to the anxiety of the Kolkata Knight Riders camp at the Eden Gardens. His innings of 52 runs off 23 balls took Royal Challengers Bangalore to a good place. Cricket experts also praised Patidar’s innings. Although Bengaluru did not get the expected success in this year’s IPL, Patidar is consistently playing well. He said that he is enjoying the IPL in Bengaluru jersey. Virat Kohli was the first to inform him of the opportunity in Bengaluru.Patidar reminisced about joining Bengaluru amid the IPL frenzy.
Sitting in the gallery at Eden Gardens, he says, “Everyone has a day in their life, a day that changes their life. Joining Bengaluru is very much like that for me.” He says, “No one in my family was ever involved in sports. But my parents always encouraged me. I was not pressured to do anything else. My parents told me to study a little. But never to look into the family business. I was interested in cricket. Sachin Tendulkar was my role model. Now I try to learn from Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s batting.
Patidar credits Kolkata Knight Riders coach Chandrakant Pandit for coming this far, apart from his childhood coach. Said, “Two sirs have taught me a lot. Almost everything I have learned is from them.”