'This math isn’t mathing': Ex-India batter questions RCB’s Mo Bobat’s claim about Rajat Patidar’s captaincy push

Ex-India batter questions RCB’s Bobat’s claim about Rajat Patidar’s captaincy push (RCB Photo)

Former Team India cricketer turned commentator, Aakash Chopra, has openly questioned a claim made by Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) Director of Cricket, Mo Bobat, regarding the franchise’s role in pushing Rajat Patidar to take the captaincy in his state side, Madhya Pradesh. RCB finally managed to win their maiden IPL title earlier this year, under their new skipper, Rajat Patidar. When he was named captain of the franchise ahead of the 2025 season, many eyebrows were raised. But he silenced his critics by leading the side to ultimate glory.

In an exclusive chat with Cricbuzz, Bobat revealed that during IPL 2024, the idea of considering Patidar as a leadership option first came up, and they spoke with the Indian batter. Bobat said that when Patidar was asked if he wanted to lead the franchise in the future, he was initially surprised but eventually said ‘yes’. The Director of Cricket explained how they then had a clear discussion with Patidar and encouraged him to speak with his seniors in the Madhya Pradesh team to get a chance to lead in domestic white-ball tournaments.

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“So, we talked a little bit around what type of leader he might want to be. We talked about whether he’d had any experience of it. I didn’t talk specifically about ‘we want you to be captain’ because we didn’t know at that stage, but I did say: ‘Look, for you to even be an option or even to be one of our senior leader four players, it’d be good if you did some captaincy. So, go to your seniors, see if they would be prepared to make you captain, even if it’s just for the white-ball stuff - the Mushtaq Ali or the Vijay Hazare trophy. And then let’s see how that goes, see if you enjoy it, we can talk about it’,” Bobat said.

“So, he spoke to Chandu [Pandit], his coach at MP, and thankfully for us they allowed him to captain the team. And then Andy and I, before going into the auction, we also wanted to identify other potential captaincy options that we might recruit. So, we met a number of players, some of them we recruited. We met with Jitesh, we met with Krunal, we met with a number of other players. We wanted to recruit a number of leaders into this environment, and not worry about who the captain is. Then going into the auction, we thought, okay, we’ve got a number of options available to us, let’s focus on recruiting the best team. After that, let’s get a captain,” he concluded.

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Patidar did well as captain, leading Madhya Pradesh to the final of the 2024-25 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. With the bat, he also impressed by scoring 428 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 186.08, which left the RCB management pleased.

However, Aakash Chopra was not convinced by Bobat’s explanation. According to him, it is highly unlikely for a franchise to influence or nudge someone into becoming captain of a state team, especially when the player had no prior experience as a skipper.

“A franchise can’t possibly ‘nudge’ someone to lead in ‘domestic cricket’. Right?? One could understand if someone is a seasoned State Team captain and is asked to continue (in case, he’s offered the captaincy by the state team again). Rajat was a first-time skipper at MP. This math isn’t mathing,” Chopra tweeted.

A franchise can’t possibly ‘nudge’ someone to lead in ‘domestic cricket’. Right??

One could understand if someone is a seasoned State Team captain and is asked to continue (in case, he’s offered the captaincy by the state team again). Rajat was a first-time skipper at MP.… https://t.co/RtQHkqyjXm

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) August 22, 2025

Chopra’s remark didn’t go down well with many RCB fans, who responded by sharing a clip from an episode of the ‘RCB Podcast: Bold and Beyond’, where Patidar himself had spoken with Mayanti Langer about the story. In the clip, Patidar confirmed that after speaking with the RCB management, he approached his Madhya Pradesh coach Chandrakant Pandit and asked for a chance at captaincy. Pandit agreed, and Patidar eventually went on to lead his state team.