He is only 30 years old, but Parthiv Patel has been around on India’s cricket landscape for almost half of those years and spent the last ten of them leading his state side. At 17 years and 153 days on debut against England in 2002, he became Test cricket's youngest wicketkeeper.
He has since come a long way – from personal issues like losing weight, dealing with fitness issues, to attitude building and changing Gujarat’s approach to the game. While speaking to
BCCI.TV about his journey as cricketer and a leader, Parthiv discussed how his early days in the Indian dressing room under former India captains, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, has helped him build the Gujarat team.
Excerpts from the interview:
Looking back how would you describe your career so far?
Very good, given that I have played 155 first-class games. I have been fortunate enough to represent Gujarat, and played a few Test matches. Coming from Gujarat I think I was only the third player from the place to play Test cricket, so feeling very proud (about it). I have captained the side for ten years now. When you have such a long career there are bound to be ups and downs, but I have thoroughly enjoyed playing and I am proud to represent Gujarat.
After the kind of debut you had, how did you work on living up to the expectations?
Honestly, if I look back and see my batting I think I was nowhere near where I am (today) when I debuted. I have improved quite a lot in the batting department and keeping wise too I had to work a bit (on that aspect). I am happy that I stay motivated every morning to go to practice and I love doing that. There is always a motivation to play for India again so that also drives me; and more than that I have a big passion to play cricket and a big passion to improve my game which drives me every morning.
How do you balance the triple responsibilities – leading, keeping and opening for the team?
Honestly it has come very naturally to me, because I have been doing that since my Under-14 days. I was captaining Gujarat, keeping and opening the batting. I have captained India Under-19 and India ‘A’ also, so I didn’t have to think about it. Since it comes naturally to me and I don’t feel any kind of pressure. I enjoy captaining the side. I enjoy what I am doing at the ground, try and do a few things. I experiment a bit, sometimes I am successful sometimes not, but as I said it has come very naturally and I didn’t have to think about batting, wicketkeeping or captaincy.
What has been the most challenging?
When I made my debut for Gujarat we were in a phase of transition. We weren’t as good a team as we are now. It took me couple of years to change the way of thinking. Every time we used go on the ground, the automatic choice was to field first. But if you want to win games then you have to bat first, only then you can win most of the times. It took me couple of years to convince players and coaches. We were quite defensive then and I thought one of the biggest challenges for me — having played international cricket — was to see the kind of cricket that our team was playing and to convince them and push them to always give more than hundred percent. If you want to win you have to give more than hundred percent every time, and had to convince all of them that there is no better feeling than winning. The team wasn’t used to winning so many games but to convince them, and to taste success was very important. I think that was the most challenging part throughout my career.
How have you worked to build the team that Gujarat is today?
I believed in a few youngsters and I told them before the season started that they will get a lot of games (to play) and that they need not worry about their place in the side and just go out there and play the way that want to. I told them, ‘you have reached this level (of playing for the state team) because you know how to play. You don’t want to play the way someone else – the coach or the captain wants you to play. You got to go out there and express yourself that’s why you are in the team. Everyone can’t be same. You have to be someone who is different that’s why you are in this team so just go out there and express yourself. You might get runs or you might not get the runs but I assure you that you will get enough opportunities to play.’ That’s something which I always believe (helps) because when I went in to the Indian team that was something which Sourav (Ganguly) or Rahul bhai (Dravid) told me, ‘you will get opportunities so you don’t worry about your place.’ That is what actually keeps you in a good mindset and that’s what I try to tell our Gujarat players and I am glad that a lot of them have a got a good successful career going forward. Axar Patel has gone on to play for India, Manpreet (Juneja) has played for India Under-23 and India ‘A’, Jasprit (Bumrah) has gone to India ‘A’. So there are a lot of them have gone on to play at the higher level so I am quite happy and quite proud to have a hand in that.
How do you maintain your fitness being a wicketkeeper and an opening batsman?
Yes, it has been an issue for people. I am much fitter than what I was three or four years back because I have worked a lot on my fitness with various trainers. When I was with the different IPL (Indian Premier League) franchises, we were lucky to have good physiotherapists. Grieg King was there with Indian team, I have worked a lot with him. Later I have worked a lot with Basu and changed my fitness regime. I changed my diet. I stayed gluten free for one-and-half years since I had to lose lot of weight. I was weighing 74 kgs at one point of time and then to come down to 63- 64 kgs took me almost 6-7 months. I had to be very disciplined about it. It has helped me in my cricket as well. It has helped me focus more and play a longer innings, and stay focussed while keeping as well. Every time I assessed my performances, I felt I was giving away chances at the fag end of the day which was obviously a fitness issue so it was something that I had to address.
I am happy that I have worked a lot on my fitness, it is giving me good confidence and helping me focus as well.
How do you work on your batting?
We have good facilities back home in Ahmedabad where I go and hit a lot of balls in the indoor facilities. I have changed my training methods. I used to do wicket-keeping, batting and bowling all in one session; so if I keep wickets first and got tired and I could not focus much on batting and the same would happen the other way around as well. But then, to overcome that we decided that every keeping session I won’t bat and every batting session I won’t keep wickets so that I could focus on one skill level. I have given a lot of hours for batting - three-four hours of hitting just one shot a day so it could turn out to be thousand balls a day, so that has helped me a lot getting into good shape of batting.
There is no power, I don’t think I can think about power but I mean, it’s all about timing and hitting the ball at the right time.
What are the challenges while changing formats within a week’s time (multi-day to one-day)?
It is a challenge this time. We are used to getting about a month’s gap (between the tournaments) in earlier seasons, but this time it will be a challenge for everyone. It’s not the easiest thing but I am sure that the young players who are keen to do well will work their way out and hopefully put up a good show.
How do you look at the one-day tournament?
I have had an average (Ranji Trophy) season. I have scored 452 runs. It would have been nice if I would have got more runs given the start that I had got. One-day is always a good opportunity (to score runs). We have a good set of young players. We have been West Zone champions for a couple of years. I am looking forward to a good contest.
