Parthiv Patel Announces Retirement from All Forms of Cricket

Parthiv Patel at the post-match press conference.

(Photo: BCCI)

After close to two decades at the highest level, Indian wicket-keeper batsman Parthiv Patel called time on his competitive career from all forms of the game.

Parthiv on 9 December, took to social media to announce his decision.

“Today, I announce retirement from all forms of cricket and as I bring down curtains on this 18 year-old cricketing journey, I feel heavier with gratitude for many,” the 35-year-old Parthiv said in a statement on his official twitter and instagram account.

“The BCCI showed generous amount of confidence and faith in a 17-year-old boy to play for India. I have enormous gratitude towards them for guiding me and hand holding me in the formative years of my young career,” Parthiv further stated.

Parthiv broke into the Indian team in 2002, becoming the youngest wicketkeeper in Tests, after making his debut at 17 years and 153 days. He made his Test debut in Nottingham while his final appearance in the India whites was in Johannesburg in 2017/18, where the visitors registered a famous win.

Parthiv remains the fourth-youngest Test debutant for India, behind only Sachin Tendulkar, Piyush Chawla and L Sivaramakrishnan.

He started well as a youngster but lost his place in 2004 with the emergence of Dinesh Karthik and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The 35-year-old, has played in 25 Tests, 38 ODIs and a couple of T20Is for India. In the domestic circuit, he featured in 194 first-class matches for Gujarat. He led Gujarat to their maiden Ranji Trophy title win in 2016-17, scoring 90 and 143 in the final against Mumbai.

Parthiv was a gritty batsman, a quality he displayed plenty of times and even on his Test debut when he occupied the crease for 84 minutes, saving the game with an unbeaten 19 against an in-form English bowling attack. This quality in his game earned him the occasional promotion to the top of the order, where he did most memorably while keeping out the fiery Shoaib Akhtar and scoring 69 in the deciding Rawalpindi Test of India's 2004 tour to Pakistan.

He also led Gujarat to the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2015, scoring a match-winning maiden List A century in the final against Delhi.

Parthiv ends his career with numbers that put him in elite company. In his domestic cricket career, he has scored 9500 runs at an average of 44.18; only Wasim Jaffer, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir have scored more.

In IPL 2020, he was part of the Virat Kohli led Royal Challengers Bangalore side but did not get a game as AB de Villiers kept wickets. He has played a total of 139 games in the IPL and played for teams like Chennai Super Kings, Deccan Chargers, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Mumbai Indians and Kochi Tuskers as well.