An 18-year-long illustrious career came to an end, on Wednesday, as wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel announced his retirement from all forms of the game.
Parthiv, 35, has featured in 25 Tests, 38 ODIs and a couple of T20Is for India. In domestic cricket, he featured in 194 first-class matches for Gujarat.
He broke into the Indian team in 2002, becoming the youngest wicketkeeper in Tests, after making his debut at 17 years and 153 days. While he had a decent start to his career, Patel lost his place in 2004 with the emergence of Dinesh Karthik and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
He made his Test debut two years and two months before he figured in his first Ranji Trophy match in November 2004 in Ahmedabad.
“I remember the match vividly. We should have won that match against Delhi. I played against some established players on the circuit like Ashish Nehra, Aakash Chopra, Ajay Jadeja, Gautam Gambhir, Mithun Manhas, Amit Bhandari, Sarandeep Singh, Vijay Dahiya. Delhi was 102 for nine chasing 156. We almost won. It was a good start to my career,” Parthiv had told Sportstar.
In 2017, Parthiv Patel led Gujarat to a Ranji Trophy title win. - K. Murali Kumar
Even though he made comebacks in between, he failed to cement his spot in the Indian team and with Wriddhiman Saha emerging as the first choice stumper in Tests, things got further challenging for the cricketer from Ahmedabad.
However, Parthiv never gave up. He remained a consistent performer in the Indian Premier League and the domestic circuit.
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In IPL 2015, he scored 339 runs to finish as the fourth-highest run scorer in the Mumbai Indians' victorious campaign. Later in the year, he brought up his first List-A hundred to lead Gujarat to its maiden Vijay Hazare Trophy title.
In February 2016, four years after he last played an international game, Parthiv returned to India's squad as a standby for the injured Dhoni.
A title finish in the Ranji Trophy in 2016-17 saw him get a call-up to the Test team against England when Saha was injured.
He was a part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise in IPL 2020.