Rajat Patidar Creates History, Becomes 1st Captain In IPL To...

Royal Challengers Bengaluru skipper Rajat Patidar entered his name in the history books on Sunday (May 31) by becoming the first player in the world to win two IPL titles in his first two seasons as captain

. Patidar was appointed RCB captain ahead of the IPL 2025 season, and he led the Bengaluru-based franchise to their maiden IPL title in 2025. In this year’s IPL, RCB successfully defended their title by getting the better of Gujarat Titans by five wickets in the final on Sunday.

IPL 2026 | Schedule | Results | Orange Cap | Purple Cap

RCB are only the third team in IPL history to win back-to-back IPL titles.

Teams to wins back-to-back IPL titles

YEAR	TEAM	WINNING CAPTAIN	LOSING TEAM
2010	Chennai Super Kings	MS Dhoni	Mumbai Indians
2011	Chennai Super Kings	MS Dhoni	Royal Challengers Bengaluru
2019	Mumbai Indians	Rohit Sharma	Chennai Super Kings
2020	Mumbai Indians	Rohit Sharma	Delhi Capitals
2025	Royal Challengers Bengaluru	Rajat Patidar	Punjab Kings
2026	Royal Challengers Bengaluru	Rajat Patidar	Gujarat Titans

Chennai Super Kings won back-to-back titles under MS Dhoni’s leadership in 2010 and 2011, while Rohit

Sharma led Mumbai Indians to consecutive IPL titles in 2019 and 2020.

However, Patidar is the only captain to win two IPL titles in his first two seasons as captain.

Captains to win IPL title in maiden season as captain

YEAR	CAPTAIN	TEAM
2008	Shane Warne	Rajasthan Royals
2013	Rohit Sharma	Mumbai Indians
2022	Hardik Pandya	Gujarat Titans
2025, 2026*	Rajat Patidar	Royal Challengers Bengaluru

In the 2026 edition of the IPL, Patidar played 15 matches for RCB and scored 501 runs. He finished the season as RCB’s second-highest run-scorer and slammed a total of 42 sixes, which is a record for the most sixes by a captain in a T20 tournament.

Rajat Patidar in IPL 2026

RUNS	BALLS	4/6s	AGAINST	VENUE	DATE
31	12	2/3	Sunrisers Hyderabad	Bengaluru	March 28
48*	19	1/6	Chennai Super Kings	Bengaluru	April 5
63	40	4/4	Rajasthan Royals	Guwahati	April 10
53	20	4/5	Mumbai Indians	Mumbai (WS)	April 12
27	13	1/3	Lucknow Super Giants	Bengaluru	April 15
8	4	0/1	Delhi Capitals	Bengaluru	April 18
8	5	0/1	Gujarat Titans	Bengaluru	April 24
DNB	–	–	Delhi Capitals	Delhi	April 27
19	15	2/1	Gujarat Titans	Ahmedabad	April 30
61	31	3/6	Lucknow Super Giants	Lucknow	May 7
8	8	1/0	Mumbai Indians	Raipur	May 10
11	8	0/1	Kolkata Knight Riders	Raipur	May 13
56	39	6/1	Sunrisers Hyderabad	Hyderabad	May 22
93*	33	5/9	Gujarat Titans	Dharamsala	May 26
15	13	1/1	Gujarat Titans	Ahmedabad	May 31

The tally of 501 runs by Patidar in IPL 2026 also helped him become only the second Indian batter after Virat Kohli to score 500 runs in a single edition of the IPL for RCB.