With the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises looking to keep the best available talents ahead of the 2026 mini-auction, the reigning champions, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have suffered a massive
setback. The Bengaluru-based franchise’s captain, Rajat Patidar has reportedly suffered an injury and is set to miss four months of cricket action.
However, not much is known of his injury, Patidar sustained the blow while playing for India A in the unofficial first four-day game against South Africa last month. If the reports are to be believed, he will need at least four months to recover and was thus ruled out of the second unofficial Test which the Protean side won.
Rajat Patidar in doubt for IPL 2026 after a blow in India A game: Report
According to reports by Abhishek Tripathi of Dainik Jagran, the India star is set to be out for 4 months and this could disrupt the momentum that the batter had in recent times. He is likely to miss the entire Ranji Trophy campaign, and also the other domestic competitions, which could dent his India comeback chances. With the IPL 2026 also round the corner, he will be put in tough conditions to regain fitness until then, putting himself in doubt.
While Patidar batted in both the innings in the first unofficial Test, scoring 19 off 35 and 28 off 87, he was omitted from the second game’s XI. Moreover, an injury at this time also put hi out of contention for T20 World Cup 2026. This comes after a series of injury blows he has sustained in recent times. While he missed the 2023 season with Achilles injury, he then sustained a finger injury in the IPL 2025 finale and needed immediate treatment.
