Former Indian Test opener Sadagopan Ramesh questioned the selectors for not picking Rajat Patidar for the Ireland and England T20Is. Patidar was able to lead RCB from the front and played a key role in taking the team to glory for the second time in a row in IPL 2026.
The RCB captain amassed 501 runs in 14 innings at an average of 41.75 and a strike rate of 192.69 in the recently concluded season. Patidar took the attack on the opposition bowlers in the middle overs and made a huge difference with his aggressive approach.
Ramesh said it is high time Patidar at least gets a look-in, in India’s T20I squad.
Ramesh said on his Instagram handle, “Shreyas Iyer has been made the T20I captain based on his IPL showing. But that raises the question on why there is no one in the T20I side from the two-time defending champions RCB. It is high time Rajat Patidar atleast gets a look in as a player in the T20I squad. If not, atleast for the India A tours, Patidar must be considered as captain.”
On the other hand, Sai Sudharsan was backed as India’s number three in the one-off Test match against Afghanistan ahead of Devdutt Padikkal. Ramesh said backing Sai is great, but Padikkal should receive equal chances.
“Giving Sai opportunities is great, but Padikkal should be given just as much. Gambhir justified favoring Sai over Padikkal by saying Sai had limited chances in England, with the conditions in England being tough. But Sai actually played 6 out of the 10 innings in England. Meanwhile, when Padikkal last played in Australia, he got only two out of 10 innings,” said Ramesh (via the aforementioned source).
“So it is clear Padikkal has got fewer opportunities compared to Sai. Gambhir’s next point for favoring Sai was the tougher conditions in England. Yet, India’s average score in the England series was 381 with 12 individual centuries. But the series in Australia, the average score for India was only 213 with just three centuries. So it is clear Padikkal has also played in tougher conditions than Sai.”
Padikkal has been in prime form in the domestic circuit.
