Rajat should be part of India's white ball set-up: Coach Khurasiya

New Delhi, June 5 (PTI) His first tryst in international cricket was a disappointing one but IPL champion skipper Rajat Patidar will soon make a comeback in national colours, his childhood coach Amay Khurasiya seemed pretty confident.

Patidar, who first played for RCB as a replacement player in 2022 led the franchise to its first ever IPL trophy in 18 years.

However the 32-year-old from Madhya Pradesh has been out of national reckoning after failing to score even one half-century against England at home in three Tests in 2024. He has also played an ODI in South Africa in December 2023.

"Rajat has proven himself. He deserves a place in the Indian team at least in limited overs (ODI and T20). His presence in the team will strengthen the middle-order of the team. He has been doing this for a long time. It's on the selectors now and they should consider his performance," Khurasiya, who played 12 ODIs for India in 1999 season told PTI Bhasha in an interview.

So what makes the diminutive Patidar stand out in a pack? Khurasiya replied the burning desire to succeed and ability to take everyone along in a marathon journey.

"When RCB made him the captain, even then many journalists had interviewed me. I had said back then only that this team will do something different this season. Patidar might look very calm from outside but is like a volcano of talent ready to erupt. He has a lot of will to achieve success by taking everyone along." "Patience and taking the right decision at the right time are two important qualities of a successful leader and Patidar meets both these criteria".

Patidar not only scored 312 runs in 15 matches this season with the help of two half-centuries but stood out with some impressive tactical moves.

Overall, he has scored 1111 runs in 42 IPL matches with one century and nine half-centuries.

He led the team in 13 matches, winning 10 of them.

Patidar belongs to the golden batch of MP's cricketers, who trained under him at the state cricket academy during their junior days, others being Venkatesh Iyer, Avesh Khan and Ashutosh Sharma and Kuldeep Sen to name a few.

"When Rajat was a teenager, he attended many camps under my guidance at MPCA. Even at that time, he was a versatile batter, calm, patient and never shied away from hard work. There was a desire to achieve success in his eyes. He was like this from a very young age." He said, "We worked on technical aspects of his batting. He is an example of determination because he worked harder on his game than we did. He has practised this game a lot." On personal front, Khurasiya who is the head coach of Kerala, guided the senior team to Ranji Trophy final, a first for the state in its 74 years.

"For me, the success of Kerala team is bigger than Patidar. That is because there was no big star in this team and it made it to the final of Ranji Trophy for the first time in its 74-year history," he concluded. AA PTI KHS KHS