Munaf Patel (born 12 July 1983) is a former

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who played all formats of the game. He has also played for the West Zone in the

Duleep Trophy The Duleep Trophy, also known as Mastercard Duleep trophy due to sponsorship reasons, is a domestic first-class cricket competition played in India. Named after Kumar Shri Duleepsinhji of Nawanagar (also known as 'Duleep'), the competition wa ...

and

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

Mumbai cricket team The Mumbai cricket team is a cricket team representing the city of Mumbai in Indian domestic cricket. The team's primary home ground is the Wankhede Stadium in South Mumbai. Secondary home venues include the MCA ground in Bandra Kurla Comple ...

and

Maharashtra cricket team The Maharashtra cricket team is a domestic cricket team that represents Maharashtra state in domestic cricket of India. It is govern by Maharashtra Cricket Association. It plays its home matches at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune ...

in domestic arena. Patel was a member of the Indian team that won the

2011 Cricket World Cup The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was the tenth Cricket World Cup. It was played in India, Sri Lanka, and for the first time in Bangladesh. India won the tournament, defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the final at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, thus ...

. In November 2018, he announced his retirement from cricket. He was born in Ikhar,

, India.

Domestic career

Munaf Patel first gained prominence in 2003 at the age of 20 before he had even played first class cricket for Gujarat, when he was invited to the

MRF Pace Foundation MRF Pace Foundation is a coaching clinic for training fast bowlers from all over the world. Based in Chennai, India, it was founded in 1987 by MRF Limited, with the help of former Australian pace spearhead Dennis Lillee. Through this program, you ...

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

by the

chairman of selectors

Kiran More Kiran Shankar More (born 4 September 1962) is an Indian former cricketer and wicket-keeper for the Indian cricket team from 1984 to 1993. He also took up the position Chairman of the Selection Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in I ...

. There he attracted the attention of visiting

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

captain

Steve Waugh Stephen Rodger Waugh (born 2 June 1965) is an Australian former international cricketer and twin brother of cricketer Mark Waugh. A right-handed batsman, he was also a medium-pace bowler. As Australian captain from 1997 to 2004, he led Australi ...

, and the director

Dennis Lillee Dennis Keith Lillee, (born 18 July 1949) is Australian retired cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation".

, a former Australian fast bowler, with his raw pace. With the backing of

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who captained the Indian national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the all time highest run-scor ...

, he was signed by Mumbai in a transfer deal, in late 2003, without ever representing his native Gujarat. He was signed by

Rajasthan Royals Rajasthan Royals (often abbreviated as RR) are a franchise cricket team based in Jaipur, Rajasthan, that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Founded in 2008 as one of the initial eight IPL franchises, the team is based at the Sawai Ma ...

for the inaugural

IPL The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

season taking 14 wickets as the Royals won the title. He later moved to

Mumbai Indians Mumbai Indians are a franchise cricket team based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, that competes in the Indian Premier League and is the most successful team of the tournament with 5 titles. Founded in 2008, the team is owned by India's biggest conglo ...

where he enjoyed his most prolific season in 2011 taking 22 wickets including a record breaking 5/21 against KXIP in Mohali. However, in the 2014 IPL Auctions, he was unsold despite a low base price of 10 Lakhs only. In the tenth season of the Indian Premier League he was picked by

Gujarat Lions Gujarat Lions was a franchise cricket team based in the city of Rajkot, that represented the Indian state Gujarat in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The team played in the IPL The team, along with Rising Pune Supergiant for two season between ...

for 30 lakh rupees but did not play.

International career

Doorstep to national team

In 2004, he struggled with injuries, and was criticised by India A coach

Sandeep Patil Sandeep Patil ( ; born 18 August 1956) is a former Indian cricketer, Indian national age group cricket manager and former Kenya national team coach, who guided the underdogs to the semi-finals of the 2003 World Cup. He was a hard-hitting midd ...

, who believed that he had a mental problem dealing with his injuries. He was also sent to

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

for bio-mechanical analysis on his bowling action, to improve its efficiency. In August 2005, he transferred to Maharashtra, and after taking 10 wickets against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in a tour match for the Board President's XI, he was rewarded with his selection in the Indian Test Squad for the 2nd Test against England in

Mohali Mohali, officially known as Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, is a planned city in the Mohali district in Punjab (India), Punjab, India, which is an administrative and a commercial hub lying south-west of Chandigarh. It is the headquarters of the Moh ...

, when he made his Test debut. Patel recorded the figures of 7/97 on debut, including 4/25 in the second innings and demonstrated an ability to swing the ball in both directions.

Early career

In the 2005–2006 Test Series against

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

, Munaf proved he was arguably the fastest bowler in India,

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

regularly at speeds of over and has produced balls at a pace over the mark. However, more impressive than his ability to bowl at a very quick pace has been his control, a skill lacking in recent Indian fast bowlers. In the West Indies, however, Munaf suffered the ignominy of being hit for 6 fours in an over by

Ramnaresh Sarwan Ramnaresh Ronnie Sarwan (born 23 June 1980) is a cricketer of Indo-Guyanese origin who played as a batsman. He is a former member and former captain of the West Indies cricket team, in all formats. Sarwan went on to average over 40 in both the ...

. Patel fell short of the record of conceding the most runs off an over by 4 runs. In the second match of the DLF Cup in Malaysia, Munaf came up with figures of 3/54 against Australia, picking up the wickets of

Phil Jaques Phil may refer to: * Phil (given name), a shortened version of masculine and feminine names * Phill, a given name also spelled "Phil" * Phil, Kentucky, United States * ''Phil'' (film), a 2019 film * -phil-, a lexical fragment, used as a root term ...

, Michael Clarke and

Stuart Clark Stuart Rupert Clark (born 28 September 1975) is an Australian former cricketer who played for New South Wales and the Australian team. He was a right-arm fast-medium bowler. His nickname "Sarfraz" originates from the similarities of his bowli ...

. In the final game of the same tournament, he dismissed Australian captain

Ricky Ponting Ricky Thomas Ponting (born 19 December 1974) is an Australian cricket coach, commentator, and former cricketer. Ponting was captain of the Australian national team during its "golden era", between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 20 ...

for just 4, on the way to 1/32 off 9 overs. In the first match of the

2006 ICC Champions Trophy The 2006 ICC Champions Trophy was a One Day International cricket tournament held in India from 7 October to 5 November 2006. It was the fifth edition of the ICC Champions Trophy (previously known as the ICC Knock-out). The tournament venue was n ...

against England, Munaf Patel again produced figures of 3/18 – winning the match for India and gaining the man of the match award.

2007 World cup

He was part of the Indian 2007 World Cup squad which failed to progress from the group stage and played during India's One-day International series against Bangladesh shortly after the tournament before playing two games in England in August 2007. He took four wickets before being ruled out of the remainder of the series through injury. He was subsequently left out of the squad to play Pakistan in November although was recalled to the Test squad following injuries to

R. P. Singh Rudra Pratap Singh (born 17 December 2007) is an Indian former cricketer, who played for the India national cricket team in Test, One Day International and Twenty20 International cricket as a left arm fast-medium bowler. In September 2018, he ...

and

S. Sreesanth Shanthakumaran Nair Sreesanth (, born 6 February 1983) is an Indian former cricketer and film actor who played all forms of the game. He is a right-arm fast-medium-pace bowler and a right-handed tail-ender batsman. In first class cricket, he p ...

2011 World Cup

He was selected for the 2009 tour to

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

and played in the opening match. He bowled five wicketless overs for 32 runs. He then picked up a groin injury before the second match and was replaced in the squad by

Lakshmipathy Balaji Lakshmipathy Balaji (born 27 September 1981) is an Indian cricket coach and former cricketer. He is a right arm fast medium bowler. He announced his retirement from first-class and List A cricket in November 2016. He was the bowling coach for ...

. He was brought back into the ODI squad for India's last preparatory series before the 2011 World Cup, with the series taking place in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. After India were beaten in the first match, they made only 190 when

M. S. Dhoni Mahendra Singh Dhoni (; born 7 July 1981) is an Indian former international cricketer who was captain of the Indian national cricket team in limited-overs formats from 2007 to 2017 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014. He is also the curren ...

chose to bat first in the second match. However, Patel put in a Man of the Match performance to return personal best figures of 4/29 off nine overs, taking the final wicket of

Wayne Parnell Wayne Dillon Parnell (born 30 July 1989) is a South African professional cricketer who most recently played for Northamptonshire in English county cricket. Previously, Parnell played Test cricket, One Day International cricket and Twenty20 matc ...

to lead India to a 1-run victory, India's first against South Africa in South Africa since 2003. He was eventually named in India's World Cup squad. In India's first World Cup match against Bangladesh, Patel took four wickets, albeit with India defending a comfortable 370 run target. In the match against England, Patel's catch off his own bowling to dismiss

Kevin Pietersen Kevin Peter Pietersen (born 27 June 1980) is a cricket commentator, conservationist, and former England international cricket player. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional off spin bowler who played in all three formats for England betw ...

broke up an opening partnership in a match which England and India would eventually tie. He played an important role in the India Pakistan semi-final match at Mohali where he performed well and also played in the finals of the World Cup. He last played for India on the 2011 tour of England.

References

External links

*
The Unsung Hero of 2011 World Cup
a
Cricket and Cricketer
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