Rajat Patidar is cleared to play again after his knee injury

SMAT 2025 Update: Rajat Patidar is cleared to play again after his knee injury

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Rajat Patidar has recovered from his knee problem and has been cleared to play by the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence. He will join the Madhya Pradesh team in Kolkata on Friday and will be available from the third round of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy matches starting Sunday, November 30.

Patidar, the captain of MP, has not played for the last four weeks. After playing for India A against South Africa A on October 30, he missed two Ranji Trophy games because of knee pain. The issue first came up during MP’s opening Ranji match against Punjab on October 15.

He has now finished a 10-day rehab program and received the official “return to play” clearance from the medical team. He has also started batting again.

Before the injury, Patidar was in great form. He began the Ranji season with a double century against Punjab and also scored two more centuries and two fifties while leading Central Zone to the Duleep Trophy title.

The upcoming SMAT 2025-26 will be his first white-ball matches since the IPL 2025, where he captained Royal Challengers Bengaluru to their first-ever title. Since then, he has been made captain of Madhya Pradesh across all formats, replacing Shubham Sharma.

Last season, MP finished as runners-up in SMAT, with Patidar playing a big role. He was the second-highest run scorer, making 428 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 186.08. He also hit 27 sixes, the most by any player that season.