“Venaktesh Iyer told me last season itself how dangerous Rajat Patidar can be,” reveals Harbhajan Singh

The former Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has revealed that the KKR opener Venkatesh Iyer had told him about Rajat Patidar last season itself and had also told him that Patidar had the capability to win games single-handedly for his team.

Both Venkatesh Iyer and Rajat Patidar play for Madhya Pradesh in the domestic circuit of India and Iyer has seen Patidar bat from close quarters. Patidar was signed by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) last season and was given the opportunity to bat at no. 3, but he couldn’t do as well as was expected of him.

As a reason, he went unsold in the mega auction earlier this year as RCB didn’t place any bid for him, and neither did any other team. But, when one of the young players of RCB, Luvnith Sisodia, got injured, they brought Patidar in as a replacement player again and this time, Patidar clicked for them straightaway.

The inclusion of Rajat Patidar provided balance to the RCB batting line-up

It was actually after Patidar’s arrival on the team that the RCB batting lineup started to look more balanced because Virat Kohli moved up the order to open the batting with the skipper Faf du Plessis and Patidar took up the no. 3 position.

According to Harbhajan Singh, who was speaking on Star Sports, Rajat Patidar might not have performed that well last season, but his MP teammate Venkatesh Iyer was never in doubt that he had the capability to set the stage ablaze in the IPL and eventually he did it this season when he got the opportunity for RCB again.

RCB now has to play another important game against the Rajasthan Royals tonight, which is the qualifier 2 in the Narendra Modi Stadium of Ahmedabad, and the RCB fans, as well as the team management, would hope that Patidar is at the top of his game again.