Parthiv Patel announces retirement from all forms of cricket

Parthiv Patel, the Indian wicketkeeper batsman who represented India in 25 Tests, 38 ODIs and 2 T20Is has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. Parthiv Patel made his Test debut in 2002 against England in Nottingham at the age of just 17, making him Test cricket’s youngest wicketkeeper.

His final international appearance for India came in India’s famous test victory over South Africa in 2018 at Johannesburg. He was also a part of the squad which had a historic test series win over Australia in 2018-19. Parthiv Patel also made a name for himself on the domestic stages. He led Gujarat to maiden Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2015 after scoring his maiden List A century against Delhi in the final.

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Parthiv Patel always played with a huge heart which was evident from his very first match. In his first test against England, he occupied the crease for 84 minutes, scoring an unbeaten 19 and helped India save the test match. The left-hander scored six half centuries in his test career, the last one being against England in 2016.

The emergence of MS Dhoni led to Parthiv Patel rarely getting a chance in the Indian squad. He played five test matches between 2016-2018. While his international career has never taken off, he has enjoyed immense success in the Indian Premier League. He was a part of three winning campaigns, with Chennai Super Kings in 2010 and Mumbai Indians in 2015 and 2017. He was also a part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad for the 2020 season but did not a game as Devdutt Padikkal opened the innings and AB de Villiers was the first choice wicketkeeper.

He was Mumbai Indian’s highest run scorer in the 2017 season and played for six franchises in total. Parthiv Patel finished with 11,240 first class runs at an average of 43.49 which includes 27 centuries. He is the fourth youngest Indian to make a test debut after Sachin Tendulkar, Piyush Chawla and L Sivaramakrishnan.