Parthiv Patel : I am quite ready as a standby

The probability of veteran Indian wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel featuring in the Indian side anytime soon is not quite concrete, but, he has revealed that he is working on his wicketkeeping and batting skills and is ready as a standby.

“I have been working hard on my keeping of late. I feel I am now keeping the wicket better than I have ever done before. I am quite ready as a standby. These days I have two separate sessions — for batting and keeping,” Patel said, speaking to The Hindu.

Moreover, Parthiv recollected his experience of sharing the dressing room with Virat Kohli during his tenure with the Indian squad in the Test series against England of the Indian squad and stated that he is delighted with the way he has contributed to the team. 

“It was exciting to be part of the team led by Virat Kohli. And it felt nice to have done well on my comeback and contributed to the team.”

Parthiv recently crossed the milestone of 10,000 runs in domestic cricket and talked about how he enjoyed leading Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy and revealed that he is happy with the way he faced the challenges. However, the challenges often drove him to a state of low confidence and self doubt.

“I have been captaining Gujarat for 10 years now. It is a challenge that I enjoy. It is one match a time for me. I am delighted, though, that we could begin our campaign on a winning note. And it is great to see young left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai making a dream debut to his career.” 

“I am happy the way I have tackled the challenges from the time I started playing Test cricket. Then being dropped and suffering a couple of seasons with not even 250 as season’s aggregate was painful. I would be lying if I say I was not low on confidence. I began to doubt myself,” Patel concluded.