Mo Bobat reveals who transformed Rajat Patidar into RCB's biggest match-winner in IPL 2026

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) director of cricket, Mo Bobat, has praised a different aspect apart from Virat Kohli for transforming Rajat Patidar as their biggest match-winner during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026, where they have qualified for the final on May 31 in Ahmedabad. 

RCB is just one victory away from joining the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the Mumbai Indians (MI) in winning two successive titles of the event. They are high in confidence after posting a massive score of 254 runs for the loss of five wickets in their allotted 20 overs.

Bobat's post-match confession: "He's worked incredibly hard with DK and Flower"

Bobat credited Patidar’s development to the effort he has put in his batting for the last two editions under the guidance of Dinesh Karthik and Andy Flower. Maintaining the fearless intent in the middle overs by the RCB captain is the key to RCB’s batting unit.

“He’s worked incredibly hard on his game with both DK (Dinesh Karthik) and Andy Flower. One thing about Rajat is that he middles the ball a lot. Whether it’s pace or spin, front foot or back foot, the ball often hits the middle of his bat.” Bobat expressed after the first qualifier.

“Over the last couple of years, we’ve tried hard to make that the identity of our team. He’s certainly batting brilliantly right now and has done so throughout the competition. That was a really special knock today, and I’m sure he’ll be very pleased to have stood up in such a big qualifier.” The RCB director of cricket addressed.

486 runs, SR 196.76 — The numbers behind Patidar's IPL 2026 transformation

When the ‘Play Bold’ army won their first IPL trophy last year, Patidar led from the front with 312 runs in 14 innings at a fine strike rate of 143.77. If that wasn’t enough, he developed the performance in IPL 2026 and smacked 486 runs in 13 innings at an average of 44.18 and a blistering strike rate of 196.76 with five half-centuries.

The right-handed batter cracked a dashing 93-run knock in just 33 balls against the Gujarat Titans in Dharmsala during the first qualifier to shoulder the side over the line in a memorable victory.

See Also: Watch: Virat Kohli can't hide his reaction as Rajat Patidar smashes six over covers in RCB vs GT IPL 2026 Qualifier 1

When the India player came as a replacement player in 2022, Patidar clubbed 333 runs in just seven innings at a strike rate of 152.75 with the help of two fifties and one century. That was the start of his journey with the side. 

Is Rajat Patidar finally the leader RCB built their final campaign around?

Under Patidar’s captaincy, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru finished the league stage of the IPL 2026 as the table-toppers. They earned nine victories in 14 clashes at a net run rate of +0.783. They grabbed six victories out of the eight clashes during the first half of the campaign.

See Also: 'We don't deserve to win'- Rajat Patidar's shocking statement after RCB's last-ball win over MI

There was a time when the franchise struggled under Virat Kohli’s leadership before 2020. Faf du Plessis was decent in shouldering the responsibility of the franchise, but Patidar took them to a different level in winning the trophies.