India vs Australia: Will Parthiv Patel have his final hurrah in the country where it all began for him?

Going into the first Test at Adelaide, there are a lot of question marks about India’s preparations. And it stands for good reason – the first day of their tour game was completely washed out; then Cricket Australia XI batted for 151.1 overs and scored 544 runs, keeping India in the field for four-plus sessions. So much so that they didn’t train on Monday – 72 hours before the first Test begins – keeping in mind heavy workloads. [caption id=“attachment_4455223” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Parthiv Patel. AFP[/caption] Of course, not everyone is buying this argument. R Ashwin, Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara have all said the same thing – India got what they wanted out of the tour game, that they were not bowling at full tilt, and that practice matches are just about getting your individual preparations right. While there will be some contention about their claims, its veracity cannot be denied. The Indian batsmen had a decent work-out in the middle; their bowlers went through the paces without much success with the ball but that is to be expected when you are playing red ball cricket in Australia after four years; the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav enjoyed some rest after a hectic limited-overs’ season; and the Indian batsmen, when not involved in the game, also had net sessions. Almost all boxes were ticked as India got down with preparations for this mega series. One aspect though stood out. There was a single player who didn’t get enough eyeballs or even game time during that past week in Sydney, never getting onto the field either. Kumar at least ran rounds to ascertain his fitness; Bumrah bowled seven balls and found out his yorker was still perfect; Kuldeep carried drinks for the most part and bowled an over too. It was Parthiv Patel who was the only player to miss out entirely on this warm-up game. It is not to say that Patel didn’t go through with his preparations. Yes,  he did; the two times this writer spotted him at the Sydney Cricket Ground, he was either going to the nets or coming back, pads and bat in hand. Patel had his batting sessions against throw-down specialists and net bowlers and fine-tuned his keeping skills in the smaller practice area. In literary parlance, he stayed in the shadows. That defines Patel’s role in this current Indian squad perfectly. There is no denying who the number one keeper-batsman in the side is. Rishabh Pant has taken things by the scruff of his neck and given a couple snapshots of what he can be. Aggressive to the hilt, he is backed to go for his shots even though his shot selection can be better at times. There is the argument that Pant doesn’t have the best footwork for a Test wicketkeeper, but if Indian cricket could make do with MS Dhoni in whites, surely Pant can do it as well. This isn’t about Pant though, and there is no reason to be unhappy with being a second-choice keeper-batsman on the tour of Australia. Patel has done it before. However, the underlying point herein is how both the team management and the selectors have mistreated him when he was not picked for the tour to England. Remember January? In the middle of the Test series against South Africa, India were dealt a blow when Wriddhiman Saha pulled up injured. Patel replaced him at Centurion at short notice and then did a great job both in that second Test as well as whilst opening in Johannesburg on a deadly wicket. Astonishingly, he was left in the cold thereafter. Why? This selection committee, and the team management as well, count white-ball form over almost anything else. Dinesh Karthik had a sensational three months in the T20 format as did Pant. But while the latter also excelled in First-Class cricket in England, Karthik’s Test selection was simply based on his ‘on-going’ success in limited-overs’ cricket. How did that selection work out in England? Not good, either in ODIs/T20Is or in Tests. Once it was confirmed that Saha was ruled out for the long-term, Patel should have been India’s number one keeping option for the Tests in England. It didn’t happen, and picking him for the Australia series now is almost an admission by the selectors that they made a mistake. It is also an admission from the team management that they should have backed Patel for the England tour, and didn’t. Even so, it doesn’t change things as they stand. Patel will perhaps not get a game on this tour, should Pant stay fit and keep scoring runs, irrespective of how he is keeping wickets. Further, a long ODI schedule begins after that, culminating in the 2019 World Cup in England. After every quadrennial ODI tournament, a reset button is hit and fresher players come into contention. At age 33, it is a wonder if this is the last appearance for Patel in Indian colours then? Wouldn’t it make for a nice fairy tale if he gets to play one last Test on Australian soil where his career first began as a chubby 17-year-old? Of course, India’s fortunes in the Test series will have a firm bearing on this eventuality.