Rajat Patidar is only the third captain to back-to-back IPL titles.
While choosing his openers for his all-time IPL XI, Patidar gave it a long thought and named Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli. Shockingly, he left out one of the best openers in IPL history and 6-time IPL-winning batter Rohit Sharma.
As an opener, Gayle amassed 4,489 runs in 122 innings, including 28 fifties and 6 hundreds. With nine hundreds and forty-four fifties, Kohli has amassed 5,684 runs in 144 innings at the top.
He selected Mumbai Indians (MI) player Suryakumar Yadav at number three, then IPL greats Suresh Raina and AB de Villiers at numbers four and five, respectively. He selected veteran MS Dhoni at seven and all-rounder Hardik Pandya at six for lower-order power.
Rajat Patidar then named two of the all-time highest wicket-taking spinners, Yuzvendra Chahal and Sunil Narine, in his bowling unit. His pace bowling unit consisted of Dale Steyn and Jasprit Bumrah, two of the best pacers in IPL history.
After leading RCB to their second IPL Championship in 2026, Rajat Patidar became just the third captain to win two tournaments in a row. In 2025, he led Bengaluru to their first IPL trophy, which they successfully defended the next season.
Patidar was included in the elite list alongside Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni. While Rohit led the Mumbai Indians to victories in 2019 and 2020, Dhoni led the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to titles in 2010 and 2011.
Rajat Patidar's all-time IPL XI:
Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Suresh Raina, AB de Villiers, Hardik Pandya, MS Dhoni, Dale Steyn, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sunil Narine.