Ranji Trophy Win Is The Beginning Of New Era For Gujarat, Says Parthiv Patel
Jan 9, 2019 at 4:10 PM
The last few months have been like a fairy tale for Parthiv Patel. After being recalled to the Indian Test side after eight years, he did himself a great favor by scoring two fluent half- centuries while opening the innings. But the icing on the cake for him was his leadership, which won Gujarat their first ever Ranji Trophy title.
In the final against defending champions Mumbai, Parthiv led from the front with knocks of 90, 143 to steer his side to glory. In a recent interview with Mumbai Mirror, he opened up about a lot of things. Below are some of the excerpts from the interview:
What the title means….
I think it is the beginning of a new era for us. This win will mean a lot for the youngsters waiting in the wings. They will now know that they will be walking into to a champion side. For those of us in the team, we will have the burden of expectations. That simply means we have to work harder now. Looking ahead, I’ll say we have raised the bar and the onus is now on us to maintain that high standard.
The difference this time around…
It is culmination of a lot of things and not just one thing. But I think the thing that made a big impact this season is the experience. We had played almost with the same set of players for almost three-four years. I always believed that we have the talent to win the crown. It was just a matter of time that these talented youngsters got the experience and deliver. Moreover, the T20 and One-Day titles gave us the belief that we can win the Ranji Trophy too. It is the belief in the players that played an important role.
Some memorable recent moments…
That will be a tough ask, especially when you have such a wonderful journey. The way RP (Rudra Pratap Singh) and Jassi (Jasprit Bumrah) bowled in the semi-final is something memorable. Then there were those mammoth innings from Priyank (Panchal) and that record-shattering innings from Samit (Gohel). And there are so many that I cannot just pick one.