A merry go round, this is the name with which we can associate the career of still the 17-year lookalike Parthiv Patel. Having made his debut still in the period of adolescence, Parthiv Patel was rated as the future of Indian cricket, people were like they have got their Sachin Tendulkar but soon with rising age, his form declined and poor show behind the wickets forced selectors to keep him out of the squad. He did make few comebacks in 50-overs squad but Test cricket, was not just his cup of tea as he last appeared in a five-day game way back in 2008, “I wasn’t expecting (Wriddhiman) Saha to get injured. It is really unfortunate, but that is how it is,” Parthiv Patel told Cricbuzz.
“I knew my chances were coming since it was going to be a long season with 12-13 Test matches in home conditions and I was always amongst the runs and keeping well in domestic cricket. Though I was not in India A, I always kept speaking to the selectors and they kept saying, ‘keep doing what you are doing’. The biggest hope came when I went to Asia Cup as a keeper as MS Dhoni’s cover. So, I knew I had to be ready. I was working hard, so this is definitely not a surprise call,” he said.
Parthiv Patel had a good run last year. As a skipper of Gujarat, he led his team to a successful run in Vijay Hazare Trophy with his first ton in List A cricket coming in the final game only. It was a perfect day to end the century drought. In current Ranji season , Parthiv has scored a total of 415 runs in five games which include one century and three half-centuries.
Talking of the blues which will face when he will enter a totally revamped dressing room with new players he said, “I haven’t entered the dressing room yet, I won’t be able to tell you what changes have come. What I have heard is that it is an extremely exciting lot; everybody is keen to do things and trying to get Indian cricket to a different level. It will be great to join a lot of players who were with me in India A and who have played under me.”
Parthiv received a surprising call at the start of the year when he was kept as standby for M.S. Dhoni for Asia Cup who was facing back issues. It was one of the motivational calls for him, “You can’t really do much about that, especially when you have a wicket-keeper/captain as good as MS Dhoni is. What he has achieved is remarkable. You can’t really worry about that, you can’t do much about factors that a not in your control.
As of now, Parthiv is in for only one Test but a good performance will surely keep him in the frame for the series (Australia, Bangladesh) to come.
The third Test between India and England start from November 26 at Mohali.