Rajat Patidar has found himself again. India rate him very highly because of his work with the A team, playing against all the world's fringe talent. That's how he broke into the Test team and while he was there he did look the part. He seemed to have a good game off both front and back foot. He didn't seem fazed by high pace and he was really good against spin, using the crease well to get into good positions, whether it was shifting back, or pushing forward.
The problem was he was being dismissed for low scores and there were others who were equally talented and equally prolific at the lower levels waiting for a turn. Sarfaraz Khan took his place and scored a Test fifty on debut and that was that. It looked like missing his chance at Test level had messed with his head. A great strength of his batting is the minimalism involved. Patidar doesn't move a whole lot but his weight transfer is always on point. For parts of that Test series against England and here in the IPL, it looked like Patidar was not getting into his shots, like he was half-hearted.
Patidar in the Tests against England: 32 and 9. 5 and 0. 17 and 0
Patidar in the IPL 2024: 0, 18, 3, 29, DNB, 50, 9 and 52*
Today, he's looked much better, peaking in the 10th and 11th overs, where he was smashing Suyash Sharma and Sunil Narine around like nobody's business.