The Royal Challengers Bengaluru were dealt with a huge blow, coming into the encounter vs Punjab Kings at Dharamsala on Sunday, as their skipper Rajat Patidar missed out on the encounter. RCB, the IPL 2026 table-toppers are just one win away from the playoffs qualification; it was Jitesh Sharma who was handed the responsibility of the side, for the clash.
Rajat Patidar misses PBKS match, Jitesh Sharma leads
While there is no official confirmation on the reason for Patidar’s absence, but a few reports, and social media chatter reveals that it could be because of the concussion he suffered in the previous match vs KKR. Meanwhile, the stand-in captain Jitesh confirmed that Patidar would be available for the next game.
Jitesh said at the toss, “Rajat is doing fantastic and we should see him in Hyderabad. We are at the business end of the tournament, and I’m happy with how the team is performing, both individually and as an unit,” making it amply clear, that it is not a serious concern.
On the other hand, Jitesh isn’t leading in the IPL for the first time. IN the 2024 season, he had lead PBKS in one match, that they had lost, in the absence of regular captain Shikhar Dhawan. Though this will be his debut as a leader for RCB. Bengaluru have been excellent this year, and have won 8 out of 12 matches. In those, Patidar has scored 337 runs at a strike rate of 192, which just shows, how significant a contributor he has been.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Playing XI): Jacob Bethell, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Venkatesh Iyer, Jitesh Sharma(w/c), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma. Impact Sub: Rasikh Salam Dar, Jordan Cox, Abhinandan Singh, Swapnil Singh, Kanishk Chouhan.
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