Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain Rajat Patidar has been the ‘biggest eye-opener’ for batting coach and mentor Dinesh Karthik. The former India wicketkeeper said on Sunday that most people ‘tend to change’ when they get power but Patidar’s promotion to RCB’s captaincy hasn’t affected his attitude at all. RCB released last year’s skipper Faf du Plessis and didn’t sign a frontline captain ahead of IPL 2025. There were rumors that Virat Kohli might take the job again but the team eventually went with Patidar, who had just led Madhya Pradesh to the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. His leadership has come as a necessary breath of fresh air, helping RCB finish at the second spot in group stage and reaching the final despite several obstacles. “Rajat Patidar has been the biggest eye-opener for me in life,” Karthik said on the second episode of RCB’s Journey to the Finale, as quoted by IANS. “Because when people suddenly get a little bit of adulation, power, they tend to change. It’s normal. Their behavioural pattern, the way they kind of interact. Somewhere, something will show. But with Rajat Patidar, what a guy he is. For someone who is a captain of RCB, and today he calls the shots, he has been exactly the same that he was before becoming the captain, Rajat.” RCB only one match at their home, the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, and lost crucial players like Josh Hazlewood, Jacob Bethell, Devdutt Padikkal and even Patidar partially or permanently for some matches. Still, their consistency to bouncing back from bad matches and tacrtically solidity remained unaffected. Director of Cricket Mo Bobat also spoke on Patidar’s composed approach and collaborative leadership style. “I think one of the most impressive things that Rajat has shown is that, and he does this as a personality and character anyway, anyone who knows him knows he’s incredibly calm,” Bobat said. “And it’s been good to see him use the people around him, whether that’s Jitesh as vice-captain, or Virat as a senior player, Krunal as another senior player, or even someone like Josh Hazlewood,” he added.