Bobat: IPL suspension gave Patidar time to heal from hand injury

With Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) enjoying one of their best seasons in recent times before IPL 2025's week-long suspension, their overseas players were "adamant" to "come back and finish the job", according to their team director Mo Bobat.

RCB are currently second on the points table with eight wins and three losses. They have 16 points, the same as table-toppers Gujarat Titans, and one more win will guarantee a playoffs spot.

"We spoke quite a lot with our overseas guys even before they went and most of them were pretty adamant that they were keen to come back and finish the job," Bobat said ahead of Saturday's match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). "We've had a good season so far, they want to come back and do that."

Like every other team, RCB have been scrambling to reassemble their squad ahead of the tournament's resumption on Saturday, but they have managed to get all their overseas players back barring Josh Hazlewood, who is nursing a shoulder injury.

Bobat did not divulge too many details about the availability of Hazlewood, who missed RCB's last game before the suspension of the league. He confirmed that Rajat Patidar was recovering well from a finger injury in his right hand. Patidar, the RCB captain, batted in the nets for close to 30 minutes without any visible discomfort ahead of the KKR clash.

"With Josh, as you'll probably be aware, he's our only player not here at the minute. He's recovering from his shoulder niggle that he had," Bobat said. "He's doing that with Cricket Australia. Obviously, our medical team and their medical team have been liaising on what that detail looks like. He's just taking that day by day and he's trying to improve.

"Patidar had an injury to his hand. He's been building up ever so slowly. For him personally, probably the disruption gave him a few more days just to get through some of that early healing, for the swelling to go down and to get used to picking up [the bat] again. He's practiced the last few days and he's going well."

While RCB are likely to have a near full-strength squad for their first two league matches, they might need to bring in reinforcements once the playoffs arrive, should RCB make it. Jacob Bethell has been named in England's squad for the West Indies ODIs and will fly back before RCB's final group match in Lucknow. Lungi Ngidi is also only available until the end of the league stage, having been named in South Africa's World Test Championship (WTC) final squad.

"Obviously, we'll lose Jacob Bethell and lose Lungi after a couple of games. So, there's an obvious impact there," Bobat said. "We've obviously got [Nuwan] Thushara in the squad, an international bowler chomping at the bit. Also, Rasikh Dar, a good bowler. So, we've got options in the squad, so certainly no concerns.

"Over the next few days, we'll think about potential replacements. There's a bit of clamour for that at the minute and lots of teams are doing that. I prefer not to push these things, so we'll just take our time and have a think about it."