The former New Zealand all-rounder has named the player who Royal Challengers Bengaluru should not release ahead of the mega auction of the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League.
The three-year contract of the players will end after the ongoing IPL in 2024. The last mega auction was held before the 2022 edition. Currently, teams can retain four players before each mega auction. And while only time will reveal how many players each team can retain before the next mega auction, Scott Styris has warned RCB against releasing Rajat Patidar.
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Praising the batsman, the New Zealand great stated that RCB should not even think of letting the batsman into the auction pool. He also backed him to go from strength to strength in the future.
“Rajat Patidar has come on in leaps and bounds. We knew the talent he possessed anyway. But, if I was in charge of RCB and I was allowed to retain four players, Rajat Patidar would be one of the four,” Styris told Jio . Cinema on Thursday, May 16.
“Think about all the big names, possibly one of the biggest names around him. But he would be one of the names I would keep. I’ll say, ‘no, no, we won’t even risk putting you back on the market.’ “You’re too good.” I think it will go from strength to strength every year,” he added.
Rajat Patidar struggled to get going in the initial phase of the ongoing IPL 2024 before turning things around in spectacular fashion. His form is one of the key reasons behind RCB’s brilliant late resurgence in the tournament.
In his last five innings, he has hit four half-centuries and has been very harsh against the bowlers. So far, he has hit 20 sixes against spinners and has scored a strike rate of 224.69 against them.
Rajat Patidar’s IPL journey so far:
Rajat Patidar’s IPL journey began in 2021 when RCB handed him his first IPL contract. In his first season, Patidar managed to score a modest 71 runs in 4 games and was released before the mega auction. In the mega auction, the right-handed batsman was not sold as he could not attract any bids.
Later, RCB signed him as an injury substitute. He went on to justify the decision by scoring an impressive unbeaten century of wins in the Playoff against Lucknow Super Giants. He made him the first non-international player to score a century in the playoffs. In total, he scored 333 runs in eight games in IPL 2022. Unfortunately, he could not play any game in IPL 2023 due to injury, but was retained by RCB.