Both Shubman Gill and Rajat Patidar will have a chance to create history when they step out for the toss at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. Gill is the captain of Gujarat Titans, while Patidar leads the defending champions Royal Challengers Bangalore.
To reach this point, both the teams have had to travel a long distance of 16 and 15 matches respectively. It doesn’t matter which team wins, one will walk away with their second IPL title, while the losers will have to fight for their lone IPL title.
Winning the IPL title as captain will also strengthen the case for both Gill and Patidar to move forward in their careers. Patidar will certainly be keen to defend their title from last year. Shubman Gill is the current captain of India in both Test and ODI, and an IPL title will remove all doubts about his abilities.
Shubman Gill – Complete IPL Career Stats & Captaincy Records
Shubman Gill’s IPL career took off after his heroics in the Under-19 World Cup, which India won in 2018. In the IPL auction that year, Kolkata Knight Riders picked him up. Gill remained with them until 2021, when the team’s best performance was a runner-up finish the previous year. Gill scored 1,417 runs with 10 fifties at a strike rate of 123 for the three-time champions in 58 matches.
For KKR, Gill batted throughout the batting order, even though he opened in most of them. As for GT, it took some time for Gill to find his footing, but he inevitably turned into a maelstrom that no one could really ignore.
Shubman Gill had a good contribution during GT’s title win in IPL 2022, but Gill has become a dangerous player in 2023. That year, he scored a record 890 runs with 3 centuries, but GT finished runner-up.
In 2024, Gill was made the GT captain with barely any experience in the T20 format. Hardik Pandya was bought by Mumbai Indians and the Titans needed a new captain. Gill’s captaincy experience in the format was limited to two Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy matches with Punjab in 2019.
In his first season as captain, Gill became calm with the bat, and so did GT. Titans finished 8th in the points table with 5 wins from 14 matches and no result in two. In 2025, Gil gets his affection back. In 15 matches, he scored 650 runs at a strike rate of 156 and 6 half-centuries. GT finished third in the points table but lost to MI in the eliminator.
In 2026, Shubman Gill scored 722 runs in 15 matches at a strike rate of 164 with one century and six fifties. GT finished second on the points table and now head into the finals in search of their second IPL title and Gill’s first as captain. For Titans, Gill has scored 3,171 runs in 75 matches at a strike rate of 153 with 22 half-centuries and 5 centuries.
Gill’s captaincy record in the IPL currently stands at 24 wins and 18 losses in 42 matches with a win percentage of 57.14%. This percentage is in the top five all-time among players who have led in at least 40 IPL matches.
Also read: Shubman Gill ignored by former KKR spinner selected in IPL 2026 Team of the Tournament
Rajat Patidar – Complete IPL Career Stats & Captaincy Records
Madhya Pradesh’s Rajat Patidar originally joined RCB in 2021 and has received high praise for his cricketing abilities. He played just 4 matches in his first IPL season and failed to make a real impact.
But, RCB were convinced by what they saw from him that year. Patidar remained unsold in the 2022 auction, but RCB signed him as a replacement when Lavith Sisodia got injured.
They had a relatively quiet season until the eliminator against Lucknow Super Giants. In a crucial playoff game, Rajat Patidar became the first uncapped player to score a century in the IPL playoffs. That game made him a fan favorite at RCB.
He finished that season with 333 runs in 8 matches at an average of 55.50 and a strike rate of 153. He was dropped in 2023, but played a high-impact role in 2024 when RCB made the playoffs despite winning only 1 of their first 8 matches.
In 2024, he scored 395 runs in 15 matches at an average of 30 and a strike rate of 177. When RCB won six consecutive matches to qualify for the playoffs, Patidar scored fifties in four matches and 40 in the other.
In 2025, Patidar had a quiet year with the bat, but his leadership was a key factor in helping RCB win its first title. The senior management of RCB had chosen him to take over as captain, but he had to prove his worth first. Patidar was confirmed as RCB captain only after Madhya Pradesh finished runners-up in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Three months after winning IPL 2025 with RCB, Patidar led Central Zone to the Duleep Trophy title. In 2026, Patidar retained his leadership skills and had his best season with the bat as well. So far, he has scored 486 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of 197 with 5 half-centuries, and scored an unbeaten 93 off 33 balls against GT in Qualifier 1.
Overall, Patidar has scored 1,597 runs in 56 matches at an average of 34 and strike rate of 165 in his IPL career. Based on the number of balls faced, Patidar is the fastest Indian to reach the milestones of both 1,000 runs and 100 sixes in the IPL.
Patidar’s clear captaincy has turned RCB into the best team of the last two years. As captain, Patidar has won 19 out of his 27 matches. The win percentage of 70.37% is the best of any captain with at least 5 matches in the IPL.
If RCB wins the final on Sunday, Patidar will become the fourth captain to win the IPL twice and the third to win it in consecutive years.
Shubman Gill vs Rajat Patidar – Who is the better batsman and captain?
It is difficult to compare the batting of an opening batsman with that of a middle-order batsman. The stats are clear about it: Shubman Gill has been one of the best openers in the league in the last few years.
In fact, Gill has a solid claim to be the best opener in the league from 2023 onwards. His association with Gujarat Titans and his home ground at Narendra Modi Stadium has also elevated his batting.
Shubman Gill has also established himself as the captain of the GT team. Shubman Gill’s results have been inconsistent since becoming the captain of the Indian team in both Test and ODI. However, with GT, input from support staff has been very helpful.
It’s mostly his coaching style, but as the match scenes show, GT head coach Ashish Nehra almost always has Shubman Gill in his ear. Under Shubman Gill, GT has arguably become a tough team with tough strategies in both batting and bowling.
While Andy Flower and Mo Bobt have played their part in handing over the reins to Rajat Patidar, Patidar has almost always done his job on the field. RCB have also stuck to a template, but that template has shown more room for adaptation. Especially in team building. RCB have rarely had to ask the question “if not first choice, then who?” Since backups have always grown.
This is not true of the Shubman Gill-led GT. GT was grappling with the question of who should replace Shubman Gill when he was unavailable for some time. Rajat Patidar’s distinctive clarity on what roles the team needs and what he needs to do on the field gives him a slight edge over Shubman Gill as a captain in the IPL.
