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5 min readAhmedabadMay 30, 2026 07:19 PM IST
RCB Captain Rajat Patidar looking at the pitch, during practice, a day before IPL final match against GT, at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday. EXPRESS PHOTO BY PRAVEEN KHANNA 29 05 2026.
As the sun set over the Narendra Modi Stadium on Saturday evening, Rajat Patidar and Devdutt Padikkal were still on the ground, working through their drills under Dinesh Karthik’s eye. The intensity was evident. So was the composure. That combination – urgency without anxiety – has become the defining characteristic of this RCB side over two seasons.
They arrive at Sunday’s final as defending champions. They also arrive at a venue that has already beaten them once this season – bowled out for 155 here in April, a total Gujarat chased with four wickets in hand. The final was originally scheduled at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, RCB’s home, before the BCCI moved it to Ahmedabad citing logistical requirements. So the defending champions will play for the title not on their own ground but on Gujarat’s, on a pitch they know can undo them. Ahmedabad is hosting the IPL final for the fourth time in the last five seasons. RCB are the only side arriving without the comfort of familiarity.
It is the kind of detail that would have unsettled previous RCB sides. This one no longer looks like a team built on reputation. It has been built, deliberately, on something more durable.
The clearest illustration came last Tuesday in Dharamsala. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 36 years old, leading the Purple Cap table with 24 wickets, bowling the same seam-up action he has bowled for sixteen years. Patidar walking in at 97 for 3 and making 93 off 33 balls – the fastest innings of 90 or more in IPL history. Neither moment was accidental. Both were the product of a franchise that has stopped assembling famous names and started building defined roles.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar in action. (FILE photo)
The thinking behind the squad reflects a clarity shaped by the Chinnaswamy – high-scoring, short boundaries, pace-friendly. Bhuvneshwar gives swing and powerplay wickets that hand RCB early control. Josh Hazlewood mixes his lengths intelligently to maintain pressure. Rasikh Salam Dar has quietly filled the third seamer slot in Yash Dayal’s absence. In spin, Suyash Sharma and Krunal Pandya bring different tools toward the same principle: middle-over control and wickets in batting-friendly conditions. The batting reflects the same role precision. Virat Kohli stabilises and anchors. Padikkal enforces at the top. Tim David accelerates late. Jitesh Sharma provides finishing depth. The intent is not to assemble the most famous XI but the most efficient one.
A win on Sunday would put Patidar alongside MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma as captains to win consecutive IPL titles. He was asked about this at the pre-match press conference on Saturday. The answer was characteristic. “No, I’ve never thought about what another captain has done or whether I want to compete with someone. My journey has been a rollercoaster, but I’ve never focused on that. I focus on what I can do best in the present. Right now, my focus is only on the final and giving my best tomorrow.”
The broader legacy conversation is one the franchise is more willing to have than their captain. Teams that define eras are rarely built on single-season brilliance. They are built on stability across cycles.
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Three things stand out in this RCB group as the foundations of something longer. The first is Patidar’s captaincy – not yet fully formed but already embedded in a clear system, built for continuity rather than personality.
The second is the Indian core of Krunal, Padikkal, Jitesh and Patidar himself – the structural backbone that gives the side identity and allows overseas players to slot into defined roles. The third is the bridge that Kohli and Bhuvneshwar provide between the franchise’s past and its evolving present. Between them they carry the identity and the experience. Neither is surplus. Both are essential.
Virat Kohli in action. (FILE photo)
Gujarat Titans are not straightforward opponents. Both sides arrive on Sunday chasing a second IPL title – GT won their first in 2022 under Hardik Pandya. They know this ground. They bat from the top with Gill and Sudharsan, bowl with Rabada and Siraj, and control the middle overs with Rashid Khan. They have lost to RCB twice this season but won Qualifier 2 to be here. Gill’s reflection after the Qualifier 1 defeat was pointed: fielding let them down under pressure. They will have addressed that.
The pitch used for the final will be the same surface used for the 2023 ODI World Cup final. On that evidence alone, conditions will test both sides equally. What it will not test equally is temperament – and that, more than tactics, is what Sunday is really about RCB have climbed the mountain once. The question is whether they have built something strong enough to stay there.
Based in Mumbai, Shankar Narayan has over five years of experience and his reporting has ranged from the Ranji Trophy to ICC World Cups, and he writes extensively on women’s cricket. ... Read More
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