This has been a record-making season for Gujarat’s Urvil Patel. Having picked up cricket in Palanpur, a metropolis that’s synonymous with diamonds, the 26-year-old is starting to indicate why he have to be probably the most polished gem to emerge out of the city. On this season’s Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he smashed the fastest-ever T20 century by an Indian off 28 deliveries, which is the second quickest on this planet too. In final season’s Vijay Hazare Trophy, he hit a 41-ball hundred, the second quickest by an Indian. On Monday, it was time to get right down to the file books once more as his maiden first-class century (140 off 197) in opposition to Saurashtra within the Ranji Trophy made him solely the second participant after Shreyas Iyer to attain a century in all three codecs of a single home season.
When the third day’s play started in Rajkot with Gujarat having a lead of 44 runs, Saurashtra knew they needed to dislodge Urvil — who was 29 in a single day – as early as potential. The state of affairs appeared tailor made for Urvil to unleash his aggressive recreation. He has been taking part in home T20s and Record A since 2018 – beginning with Baroda earlier than switching to Gujarat — however the Ranji debut got here solely final season, and it’s this ongoing season the place he began as a first-choice. However there was one thing else that Urvil needed to get used to.
“My recreation is extra suited to white-ball,” Urvil concedes. “However I needed to really feel the red-ball recreation as nicely as a result of the satisfaction of scoring huge in Ranji Trophy is totally different. What I needed to expertise was when it’s important to take much less threat, why is it arduous to bat lengthy. So I used to be simply attempting to play an extended innings and see how I’m going about it. Plus, the match state of affairs was such that, it wanted me to exit and play a giant knock which I did,” Urvil tells The Indian Categorical.
Urvil after all needed to thank fellow centurion Jaymeet Patel (103) and Manan Hingrajia (83) who had performed all of the arduous work on Day 2 to blunt Saurashtra’s assault. And having taken the primary innings lead, Gujarat wanted Urvil to drive dwelling the benefit. “Taking part in attacking cricket comes naturally to me. Nonetheless since we needed to change between codecs, I needed to learn to modify between the three. And simply because I’m taking part in red-ball cricket, there isn’t a want to vary my recreation drastically. It was extra about studying to use myself for longer durations. Since I’m taking much less dangers, I knew runs would undoubtedly come,” Urvil provides.
Within the SMAT he scored 315 runs in 6 matches together with two centuries along with his strike-rate of 229.92 being the perfect for any. That it got here opening the innings confirmed the influence he has been having on the aspect and it continued in Vijay Hazare Trophy as nicely, scoring 333 at a strike-rate of 134.27. “My recreation is extra suited to white-ball. If you find yourself opening, you’ve the licence to play freely. And as a batsman, you must put much less value in your wicket and play high-risk cricket. I really feel that comes naturally to me and liberates my recreation as nicely. My intention has at all times been about happening the assault,” Urvil says.
Given his big-hitting prowess it did come as a shock that his identify didn’t even come up on the IPL auctions. In 2023 he had been a part of the Gujarat Titans franchise, however this time even his identify didn’t make the reduce. “I can’t blame anybody as a result of I scored all of it after the public sale. However there’s at all times time… there isn’t a level fascinated by what you missed, when you’ve a complete home season forward of you. I’ve lot to work on my batting,” Urvil provides.
It has been fairly a exceptional journey for Urvil who picked up the cricket bat solely as a result of his father Mukesh Patel, a bodily training instructor at Authorities college, couldn’t fulfil his desires of changing into an athlete. So when Urvil was born, he needed to make him a cricketer. “Again then, my father couldn’t transcend the state degree. He was a sprinter – participated at 200m and 400m at state degree meets. However since ours was an enormous joint household he needed to reduce brief his dream and begin working. For me, he has been an enormous pillar of assist as a result of he has ensured that I get all the pieces. He even left his tuition courses to assist me with coaching.”
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Having made heads flip, Urvil is aware of an IPL call-up must be across the nook, but it surely isn’t the vacation spot he sees himself in. Having grown up idolising Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav, his dream stays incomes the India cap. “I actually need to be a part of India’s T20 aspect. Simply taking a look at how they’re taking part in, I really feel it simply fits my model. I’ve had the prospect to talk to Hardik bhaiya… and he was additionally telling me how a batsman ought to strategy a T20 recreation. That’s what I’m doing lately,” Urvil provides.
Temporary scores:
Saurashtra 216 & 33/0 vs Gujarat 511 (Urvil Patel 140, Jaymeet Patel 103, Ravi Bishnoi 45; Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 5/120, Chirag Jani 4/67).
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