Rajat Patidar is all set to lead Madhya Pradesh in all formats for the upcoming domestic season 2025-26. He will be replacing Shubham Sharma as an all-format captain after the decision of the MP director of cricket, Chandrakant Pandit. The Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) was keenly interested in Patidar’s expansion as captain across different formats following his recent leadership success. The 32-year-old player first captained the side during the last year Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) and impressed everyone by taking MP to the final against Mumbai. Rajat Patidar’s credentials were further boosted after he led Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to their maiden IPL title this year and then helped Central Zone to the historic Duleep Trophy victory. Last week, Rajat Patidar also led the Rest of India squad against Vidarbha in the Irani Cup 2025 final in Nagpur. However, the Rest of India lost the 2025 Irani Cup title to Vidarbha, the defending Ranji Trophy champions. Rajat scored 66 and 10 in both innings of the Irani Cup final match, but that wasn’t enough to seal the victory for ROI. Also Read: ‘Blood Vaibhav to Senior Team’ - RR’s Director of High Performance Urges Indian Selectors In the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season, Patidar scored 529 runs in 11 innings of Ranji at an average of 48.09 and a strike rate of 77, including one century and two fifties, and was the second-highest run getter from his team. He now has 5,196 runs from 72 first-class matches at an average of over 44 runs per match. Madhya Pradesh will kick off their Ranji Trophy 2025-26 season against Punjab in Indore. The season will run in two phases: October 15 to November 19 for the first leg, followed by a break for white-ball tournaments, and resuming January 22 to February 1 for the second leg. The knockout phase has been scheduled from February 6 to 28.