Niraj Patel
Teams: Gujarat and Rajasthan Royals
While Shane Warne has been elucidating on the art of ‘constructing an over’ for bowlers, one of his key personnel— a late entrant to the Rajasthan Royals party—has been defining the craft of ‘constructing an innings’. Two last-over finishes for the Royals, effected with a pressure-easing boundary against Delhi and a nerveless six against Mumbai, mean that Niraj Patel has been Jaipur’s ice-man in the hot IPL summer.
Four matches, three innings, two not-outs. Averaging an unreal 101, Patel is Rajasthan’s latest in a line of match-winners. The left-hander — an U-19 World Cupper from Mohammad Kaif’s 1999 batch — has been a consistent run-getter for Gujarat, amassing the most runs in the 2004-5 domestic season. In the first-ever T20 tournament organised by the BCCI earlier, Patel finished with more than 300 runs, second only to Karan Goel, and most of his runs had come in pressure scenarios.
Picked for India A, he has had restricted opportunities, and even Shane Warne regrets not offering him a bigger role. “He’s been fantastic whenever he’s been asked to deliver, and gives us a good headache in selection,” Warne says.
The opposition tends to relax when Patel walks out, since he has no reputation of massive sixes, and have paid heavily for their miscalculation. An introvert who is selective in taking advice, Patel has gone about his job waiting for the chances that haven’t come often. “A man for the big games,” says Praveen Amre, his coach at Air-India. “He knows how to score runs, and was the only player in our team to get a 100 in the Times Shield final this year,” Amre recalls, saying that the big India call-up won’t be too far if he continues in the same vein.
— Shivani Naik

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