Ajaz Yunus Patel (born 21 October 1988) is a New Zealand

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who plays for Central Districts in domestic cricket. He emigrated with his family from

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

when he was eight years old, and was formerly a left-arm seam bowler. Patel is a

slow left-arm orthodox Left-arm orthodox spin or left-arm off spin, also known as slow left-arm orthodox spin bowling, is a type of spin bowling in cricket. Bowlers using this technique bowl with their left-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery spins ...

spin bowler. He made his international debut for the

New Zealand cricket team The New Zealand national cricket team represents New Zealand in men's international cricket. Nicknamed the Black Caps (), they played their first Test in 1930 against England in Christchurch, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. ...

in October 2018. He was the first

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

from New Zealand to play for the national team. The following month, he made his

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

debut for New Zealand, taking five wickets in the second innings. In May 2020,

New Zealand Cricket New Zealand Cricket, formerly the New Zealand Cricket Council, is the governing body for professional cricket in New Zealand. Cricket is the most popular and highest profile summer sport in New Zealand. New Zealand Cricket operates the New ...

awarded him with a central contract, ahead of the 2020–21 season. In December 2021, in the second Test against India, Patel became the third bowler in Test cricket to take all ten wickets in an innings. Jim Laker and

Anil Kumble Anil Kumble (; born 17 October 1970) is a former Indian cricketer, captain, coach and commentator who played Test cricket, Test and One Day International cricket for his national team over an international career of 18 years. A right-arm leg sp ...

were the others to do so. However, New Zealand still met with a heavy defeat in the match. This makes Patel the only one of the mentioned three to end up on the losing side after this achievement.

Personal life

Born in

, India into a

Gujarati Muslim The term Gujarati Muslim is usually used to signify an Indian Muslim from the state of Gujarat on the western coast of India. Most Gujarati Muslims have the Gujarati language as their mother tongue, but some communities have Urdu as their moth ...

family, Patel is a practising Muslim.

Domestic career

Patel made his

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

debut on 27 December 2015 in the 2015–16 Ford Trophy. He took the most wickets in the 2015–16 Plunket Shield season, with 43 dismissals. He was also the leading wicket-taker in the following season, with 44 dismissals. In April 2018, Patel was named the Men's Domestic Player of the Year at the New Zealand Cricket Awards. He finished the 2017–18 Plunket Shield season as the leading wicket-taker, with 48 dismissals in nine matches. In June 2018, he was awarded a contract with Central Districts for the 2018–19 season. In July 2022, Patel was signed by

Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...

to play in their final four matches of the

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

in England, he took a total of 14 wickets.

International career

In July 2018, Patel was named in New Zealand's

squad for their series against Pakistan. In October 2018, he was named in New Zealand's

Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

(T20I) squad, also for their series against Pakistan. He made his T20I debut for New Zealand against

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

on 31 October 2018. During the same tour, he was also added to New Zealand's

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

(ODI) squad, but he did not play in the ODI series. He made his Test debut for New Zealand against

on 16 November 2018. He took five wickets in the second innings, with New Zealand winning by four runs, and was named the man of the match. In August 2021, Patel was named in New Zealand's ODI squad for their tour of Pakistan.

India 2021: Ten wickets

In November 2021, Patel was named in New Zealand's Test squad for their two-match series in India. The first Test finished in a draw late on day five, with Patel taking 2/90 in the first innings, and 1/60 in the second innings of the match. The second Test started on 3 December 2021, with Patel taking all ten wickets in the first innings of the match, finishing with figures of 10/119 from 47.5 overs. Patel became the third bowler, after Jim Laker in 1956 and

in 1999, to take all ten wickets in an innings of a Test match. In the second innings, Patel took a further four wickets, finishing the match with 14/225, the best bowling figures in a Test match against India.

2023

In November 2023, he was selected in New Zealand's squad for the test series against Bangladesh. In the first test, he picked up 6 wickets across the two innings. In the second test, he picked up 8 wickets across two innings.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Patel, Ajaz 1988 births Living people New Zealand cricketers New Zealand Test cricketers New Zealand Twenty20 International cricketers Central Districts cricketers Cricketers from Mumbai Indian emigrants to New Zealand New Zealand sportspeople of Indian descent Cricketers who have taken five wickets on Test debut Naturalised citizens of New Zealand Cricketers who have taken ten wickets in an innings New Zealand Muslims