Patel’s career takes a turn for the better
Driving to an end-of-season benefit cricket match in England on Sunday, the last person Jeetan Patel expected to hear from was Gavin Larsen.
So when the New Zealand selector offered him a plane ticket to India to replace the injured offspinner Mark Craig in Friday’s second test at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, the 36-year-old had to keep Larsen hanging.
It was, after all, 45 months since his previous test appearance in South Africa in January 2013. And Patel had agonised over his decision to opt out of the mid-year West Indies tour in 2014 to cement his now-glittering county career at Warwickshire.
‘‘I turned down the opportunity [in 2014] and I basically thought that was it,’’ Patel said from London, as he prepared to board his flight to Delhi.
Then there was wife Kate - expecting their second child in December - to convince. With twoyear-old daughter Niya, the Patels were booked to fly to New Zealand
on Thursday to rejoin the Wellington Firebirds for another domestic season.
‘‘I thought ‘she’s going to struggle with all the bags and the little one as well’. So I had to take a deep breath - not so much ask for permission but certainly discuss what could happen next. She was all for it.
‘‘The timing wasn’t great last time, at all, and it was manageable this time so why not? I’m enjoying my cricket, I’m loving it. I’ve
bowled OK recently so hopefully I can take that form into a test match. To go and don that cap again will be exciting.’’
There’s a bit of Kiwi understatement there. Patel again bowled the house down in England and had an oversized Stg10,000 (NZ$17,850) cheque to show for it as the Professional Cricketers’ Association’s most valuable player for a second time.
He also made the shortlist for the PCA’s players’ player of 2016 which is still to be awarded, and re-signed for another year with Warwickshire which he hopes will turn into two.
Patel helped Warwickshire beat Lancashire on the final day of the season to avoid relegation, and end with his best first-class haul of 69 wickets at an average of 24 to join Essex’s Graham Napier atop the charts. It was his fifth successive 50-plus season in the county championship. Patel took 102 wickets in all formats and helped spin the Bears to victory over Surrey in the one-day cup final at Lord’s.
Dry pitches suited Patel who is quick through the air and snared plenty of lbw decisions. Now it’s another level up, to India where he took seven wickets at 35 in two tests there in 2012.
‘‘In terms of taking wickets here, it’s different again. It’s test cricket and they’re the best of the best and they’re India so they’re going to be very strong,’’ Patel said. ’’I don’t know what’s going to happen but I’m going to give it a go and have some fun, and really enjoy a moment that could be my last one [at test level].’’
Tests in Kolkata and Indore also offer a bonus opportunity to avert some cricket fans’ memories of his previous stint with the Black Caps. His 19th and most recent test was on the horror South Africa tour of 2013 where New Zealand were hammered 2-0 and Patel struggled with the ball and backed away to the fearsome Dale Steyn. The sheer volume of cricket and chance to bowl plenty of overs across the last five English seasons hardened and sharpened him as a bowler.
He watched highlights of the Black Caps’ first test defeat in Kanpur at the hands of India’s spinners, and was already poring over notes on the home batsmen supplied by team staff, ahead of his solitary training session on match eve. Patel’s never played in a New Zealand three-spin attack and looked forward to mentoring and potentially teaming up with Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi.
‘‘It’s a bit surreal. The main thing is to go and express myself. I feel like I’ve left a little bit in the international game and whether I’m out to prove anything to anyone or myself, the one thing I want to prove is that I still enjoy my cricket.’’