Delhi all-rounder Rajat Bhatia announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on Wednesday bringing an end to a first-class career spanning almost two decades. Bhatia who made his first-class debut for Tamil Nadu back in 1999-2000 season, moved to his home team Delhi two years later and played for them till 2015 before moving to Uttarakhand. Bhatia last played a first-class match in 2019 Ranji Trophy. In the 2018-19 season, he scored 700 runs at an average of 175 in the Ranji Trophy.
Bhatia whose military medium gave a lot of troubles to batsmen in IPL when he played for Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals, was an accomplished batsman in first-class cricket. In 121 matches Bhatia scored 6482 runs at an impressive average of 49.10 with 17 hundreds to his name. The right-handed middle-order batsman scored 512 runs in 2007 Ranji Trophy when Delhi won the title for the last time.
Bhatia picked up 137 wickets at an average of 27.97 in first-class cricket.
In List A cricket, he has scored 3038 runs at an average of 41.05 with 3 hundreds to his name. He has also picked up 93 wickets.
Despite having very good numbers in domestic cricket, Bhatia could never crack the India code. But he was a success in the IPL.
After modest return for his home franchise Delhi Daredevils in the first three seasons of IPL, Bhatia turned his fortunes around when he was drafted into the Kolata Knight Riders squad by captain Gautam Gambhir. Bhatia played a crucial role in KKR’s maiden IPL triumph in 2012 by 13 wickets in that season.
After playing three IPLs for KKR, Bhatia was released by the Kolkata-based franchise and was picked up by Rajasthan Royals for a whopping 1.7 crores ahead of IPL 2014. He picked up 12 wickets in that season.
Bhatia also played a couple of seasons for Rising Pune Supergiants. His last appearance in IPL was in 2017.