Parthiv Patel, who retired from all forms of cricket on Wednesday, December 9, was a towering figure for his state team Gujarat for 15 years, famously leading them to their maiden Ranji Trophy title win in 2016/17. He traced his team’s journey to the top in the 2018 Wisden India Almanack.
This article first appeared in Wisden India Almanack 2018. You can buy the latest edition here.
Gujarat’s victory in the Ranji Trophy last season might have come as a surprise to many people, but not to the team.
Ten years ago, when I first became captain, I wouldn’t have said that we could win the Ranji Trophy, because then there weren’t enough hungry players in the side. Mostly, they wanted to keep their place.
One of the first things I did as captain was to insist that I should attend selection committee meetings. Our five-man selection panel has one person each from Ahmedabad, Surat, Valsad, Nadiad and Gandhinagar. We insisted no selector should promote a player from his city; we were clear that we were there to pick a team for Gujarat. It took time, but it was a big change in our selection policy.
The process started some four years ago. We dropped senior players and decided to invest in youngsters such as Manprit Juneja and Bhargav Merai. Priyank Panchal has been around for a while, as has Samit Gohel. We needed a solid opening pair – I’ve never enjoyed going out to bat at 10-2! It took us three years to find the right combination. One year, Priyank opened with Smit Patel, then Smit went with Samit and Priyank was dropped. Then it was Priyank and Samit. I decided that we would play Priyank and Samit the full season, that we would give them security. I told them I wasn’t expecting a 200-run partnership, just 40-50 to set the tone. Giving them that security made the difference.
It didn’t matter to me if there was a second wicketkeeper playing in the XI as a pure batsman. I made sure that if a keeper was a good batsman, he would play. I know how it feels when you score runs but don’t get picked because you are a wicketkeeper. That’s how Avi Barot, Rajdeep Darbar and Smit Patel have played – all these guys have been part of India Under-19.
I had a good season, not a brilliant one. But those two knocks in the final, I will remember forever. After 15 years of my career, we were on the brink of history. And that’s what people will remember as my game, where I got 90 in the first innings and 140 in the second.
It all fell into place nicely.
