Gujarat opener Urvil Patel. (Credit: X/Gujarat Cricket Association)
This has been a record-making season for Gujarat’s Urvil Patel. Having picked up cricket in Palanpur, a city that is synonymous with diamonds, the 26-year-old is beginning to show why he must be the most polished gem to emerge out of the town. In this season’s Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he smashed the fastest-ever T20 century by an Indian off 28 deliveries, which is the second fastest in the world too. In last season’s Vijay Hazare Trophy, he hit a 41-ball hundred, the second quickest by an Indian. On Monday, it was time to get down to the record books again as his maiden first-class century (140 off 197) against Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy made him only the second player after Shreyas Iyer to score a century in all three formats of a single domestic season.
When the third day’s play began in Rajkot with Gujarat having a lead of 44 runs, Saurashtra knew they had to dislodge Urvil — who was 29 overnight – as early as possible. The situation seemed tailor made for Urvil to unleash his aggressive game. He has been playing domestic T20s and List A since 2018 – starting with Baroda before switching to Gujarat — but the Ranji debut came only last season, and it is this ongoing season where he started as a first-choice. But there was something else that Urvil wanted to get used to.
“My game is more suited for white-ball,” Urvil concedes. “But I wanted to feel the red-ball game as well because the satisfaction of scoring big in Ranji Trophy is different. What I wanted to experience was when you have to take less risk, why is it hard to bat long. So I was just trying to play a long innings and see how I go about it. Plus, the match situation was such that, it needed me to go out and play a big knock which I did,” Urvil tells The Indian Express.
Urvil of course had to thank fellow centurion Jaymeet Patel (103) and Manan Hingrajia (83) who had done all the hard work on Day 2 to blunt Saurashtra’s attack. And having taken the first innings lead, Gujarat needed Urvil to drive home the advantage. “Playing attacking cricket comes naturally to me. However since we had to switch between formats, I had to learn how to adjust between the three. And just because I’m playing red-ball cricket, there is no need to change my game drastically. It was more about learning to apply myself for longer periods. Since I’m taking less risks, I knew runs would definitely come,” Urvil adds.
In the SMAT he scored 315 runs in 6 matches including two centuries with his strike-rate of 229.92 being the best for any. That it came opening the innings showed the impact he has been having on the side and it continued in Vijay Hazare Trophy as well, scoring 333 at a strike-rate of 134.27. “My game is more suited to white-ball. When you are opening, you have the licence to play freely. And as a batsman, you ought to put less price on your wicket and play high-risk cricket. I feel that comes naturally to me and liberates my game as well. My intention has always been about going on the attack,” Urvil says.
Given his big-hitting prowess it did come as a surprise that his name didn’t even come up at the IPL auctions. In 2023 he had been part of the Gujarat Titans franchise, but this time even his name failed to make the cut. “I can’t blame anyone because I scored all of it after the auction. But there is always time… there is no point thinking about what you missed, when you have a whole domestic season ahead of you. I’ve lot to work on my batting,” Urvil adds.
It has been quite a remarkable journey for Urvil who picked up the cricket bat only because his father Mukesh Patel, a physical education teacher at Government school, couldn’t fulfil his dreams of becoming an athlete. So when Urvil was born, he wanted to make him a cricketer. “Back then, my father couldn’t go beyond the state level. He was a sprinter – participated at 200m and 400m at state level meets. But since ours was a huge joint family he had to cut short his dream and start working. For me, he has been a huge pillar of support because he has ensured that I get everything. He even left his tuition classes to help me with training.”
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Having made heads turn, Urvil knows an IPL call-up should be around the corner, but it isn’t the destination he sees himself in. Having grown up idolising Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav, his dream remains earning the India cap. “I really want to be part of India’s T20 side. Just looking at how they are playing, I feel it just suits my style. I’ve had the chance to speak to Hardik bhaiya… and he was also telling me how a batsman should approach a T20 game. That’s what I’m doing these days,” Urvil adds.
Brief 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).
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
