Discarded At Player Auctions, Rajat Patidar Plays RCB Match Winner, @ Just Rs 20 Lakh

Rejected outright by all 10 franchises at the big player auction for the Tata IPL-15 in Bengaluru, Indore-born batter Rajat Patidar proved how the talent scouts hunting for gifted players were wrong in their assessment of his class and calibre. Even the United Spirits owned Royal Challengers Bangalore, which played him in four matches in season 2021 did not have a second look at him at the auction. But ‘kismet’ has its own ways to bring luck for a player. RCB chose the Madhya Pradesh bombarder as a replacement for the injured Luvnith Sisodia after the league had got off the ground and RCB had lost two matches. Being an uncapped player (not played for India in any format), the CTC to the Bangalore franchise was a meagre Rs 20 lakh. Patidar showed glimpses of his hitting ability in six matches before blasting away to glory with a 54 ball unconquered 112 with 7x6s and 5x4s. The Return of Investment on a start-up like player was humongous; the RCB eliminated the RP-Sanjiv Goenka group owned Lucknow Super Giants from the playoffs and got within striking distance of the title match. Former England captain and a busybee on Twitter, Michael Vaughan, described Patidar’s match-winning knock as: “Talk about producing when it really counts…incredible.”  A discard at the IPL auction, Patidar became overnight famous with a gem of a knock.