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When they step up to the toss at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday, both Shubman Gill and Rajat Patidar will have a chance to create history. Gill is the captain of the Gujarat Titans, while Patidar leads the defending champions, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Both teams have had a long journey of 16 and 15 matches, respectively, to make it to this point. No matter which team wins, one will be walking away with their second-ever IPL title, while the losers will have to contend with their solitary IPL title.
Winning the IPL title as captain would also solidify the case for both Gill and Patidar further in their careers. Patidar would arguably be itching to defend his title from last year. Shubman Gill is India's current captain in both Tests and ODIs, and an IPL title would put all doubts about his capabilities to rest.
Shubman Gill - Complete IPL Career Stats and Captaincy Record
Shubman Gill's IPL career started after his heroics in the Under-19 World Cup, which India won in 2018. At the IPL auction that year, the Kolkata Knight Riders picked him up. Gill stayed with them until 2021, when the team's best finish was as runner-up in the last year. In 58 matches, Gill made 1,417 runs at a strike rate of 123 with 10 fifties for the three-time champions.
For KKR, Gill batted throughout the batting order, even though he opened in the majority of them. For GT, Gill took some time to find his feet, but he essentially turned into a maelstrom that no one could actually ignore.
Shubman Gill had a decent contribution during GT's title win in IPL 2022, but it was in 2023 that Gill turned into the beast. That year, he made a record 890 runs with 3 centuries, but GT finished as runners-up.
In 2024, Gill was made the GT captain with barely any experience in the T20 format. Hardik Pandya had been traded away to the Mumbai Indians, and the Titans needed a new captain. Gill's captaincy experience in the format had been limited to two Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy matches with Punjab in 2019.
In his first season as captain, Gill fell quiet with the bat, and so did GT. The Titans finished 8th on the points table with 5 wins and two no results in the 14 matches. In 2025, Gill found his mojo back. In 15 matches, he made 650 runs at a strike rate of 156 and 6 half-centuries. GT finished 3rd on the points table but lost the Eliminator to MI.
In 2026, Shubman Gill made 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 are now in the final in search of their second IPL title and Gill's first as captain. For the Titans, Gill has made 3,171 runs from 75 matches at a strike rate of 153 with 22 fifties and 5 centuries.
Gill's captaincy record in the IPL currently reads 24 wins and 18 losses from 42 matches at a win percentage of 57.14%. That percentage is among the top five of all time among players who have led in at least 40 IPL matches.
Also Read: Shubman Gill overlooked as former KKR spinner picks IPL 2026 Team of the Tournament
Rajat Patidar - Complete IPL Career Stats and Captaincy Record
Madhya Pradesh's Rajat Patidar originally joined RCB in 2021 and 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 whatever little they saw of him that year. Patidar went unsold in the auction in 2022, but RCB signed him as a replacement when Luvith Sisodia got injured.
His season was relatively quiet until the Eliminator against the 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 essentially made him a fan favourite at RCB.
He ended that season with 333 runs at an average of 55.50 and a strike rate of 153 from 8 matches. He was ruled out in 2023, but in 2024 he played a high-impact role when RCB made the playoffs despite winning just 1 of their first 8 matches.
In 2024, he made 395 runs in 15 matches at an average of 30 and a strike rate of 177. When RCB won six matches in a row to qualify for the playoffs, Patidar made fifties in four of the games and had a 40 in another.
In 2025, Patidar had a quiet year with the bat, but his leadership was the crucial factor in taking RCB to their first title win. RCB's senior management had earmarked him to take over as captain, but he had to prove his credentials first. Patidar was confirmed as RCB's captain only after he took Madhya Pradesh to a runner-up finish 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 kept up his leadership acumen and also had his best season with the bat. So far, he has 486 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of 197 with 5 half-centuries, and a monstrous 93 not out from 33 balls against GT in the Qualifier 1.
Overall, Patidar has made 1,597 runs in 56 matches at an average of 34 and a strike rate of 165 in his IPL career. By 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-cut captaincy has turned RCB into the best team of the last two years. As captain, Patidar has won 19 of his 27 matches in charge. The win percentage of 70.37% is the best of any captain with at least 5 matches with the armband in the IPL.
If RCB win 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 batter and captain?
Comparing the batting of an opener with a middle-order batter is a harder task. The stats are rather clear about it: Shubman Gill is among the best openers of the league in the last few years.
In fact, Gill has a solid claim to being the best opener of the league since 2023. His association with the Gujarat Titans and their home ground at the Narendra Modi Stadium has elevated his batting as well.
Shubman Gill has also found his feet as captain of the GT team. Since becoming the captain of the Indian team in both Tests and ODIs, Shubman Gill's results have been inconsistent. With GT, though, the input from the support staff has helped a lot.
It is mostly his coaching style, but GT head coach Ashish Nehra is almost always in Shubman Gill's ear, as visuals from the match show. Under Shubman Gill, GT has arguably become a rigid team with rigid strategies in both batting and bowling.
While Andy Flower and Mo Bobat played their part in letting Rajat Patidar take over, Patidar has almost always done his own thing on the field. RCB also sticks to a template, but that template has shown more room to adapt. Especially in team building. RCB has seldom had to ask the question of "if not the first choice, then who?" since the backups have always stepped up.
That has not been true of the Shubman Gill-led GT. GT struggled with the question of who to replace him with when Shubman Gill was unavailable for a while. Rajat Patidar's specific clarity of thought on what roles the team needed and what he needed them to do on the field gives him a slight edge as a captain in the IPL over Shubman Gill.
