Former India batter Aakash Chopra shared his views on Rajat Patidar and Ajinkya Rahane’s captaincy debuts for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), respectively, within the opening match of IPL 2025 on Saturday. In a battle of two new captains, the less-experience Patidar outclassed the senior-pro Rahane as RCB thrashed the defending champions KKR by 7 wickets. Talking on his YouTube channel, Chopra credited Patidar for the win, regardless of admitting that the preliminary indicators weren’t promosing from a captaincy perspective.
“I used to be questioning how would Rajat Patidar fare as a captain. I truthfully felt he missed a trick. The primary three overs had been good. Within the fourth over, he introduced Salam, after which had Krunal within the fifth. I used to be considering, ‘Do not try this.’ Rahane capitalised and saved scoring runs, they usually reached 100 in 10 overs. KKR ought to have scored 200, however that’s the place the comeback started. Thumbs down for Patidar’s captaincy within the first 10 overs, however then it regarded just like the match may head the opposite method. I imply, Krunal took three wickets. We saved saying, RCB’s weakest hyperlink was their spinners. However that grew to become their energy. Krunal was good regardless of an costly first over. Suyash was delivering very unfastened balls, however he dismissed Russell. KKR finally didn’t even rating 175. They are going to be disenchanted,” stated Chopra.
Talking on Rahane, Chopra felt the previous Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain missed a trick by not bringing Sunil Narine to the assault within the Powerplay.
“What I felt about Patidar, grew to become true for Rahane. Why weren’t you bringing Narine? What had been you ready for? They saved scoring runs and KKR delayed Narine’s introduction. Rahane missed the trick there. Thumbs down for KKR. Thumbs up for RCB,” he added.
Chopra additionally praised Patidar for the benefit with which he toyed with Narine, a bowler who has troubled greats like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni prior to now.
“Patidar regarded stunning. He performed simply 14 balls off Narine and smashed him for 3 sixes. To place that into context, Rohit, Kohli and Dhoni have performed towards Narine for 13 years and managed simply 4 sixes collectively. So Patidar’s supremacy towards Narine got here to the fore. General, a tepid begin for Kolkata,” Chopra additional highlighted.
After the match, even Patidar was relieved to style a win on his captaincy debut, and hoped that the pattern may proceed.
“There was stress, but it surely was a very good day for me,” stated Patidar. “Hope for extra such days.”
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