Parthiv Patel: Little Mr Sunshine for India

On Thursday, a day after he was recalled to the Test side after eight years, the old nickname ringed a few times in the nippy afternoon during the practice session. And it was not just the coach or support staff, even some of the junior players were unrestrainedly calling him chhotu. It felt odd as, a decade and half later after his debut, Parthiv is among the oldest players in this youthful Indian team. But if the nickname seemed a touch out of place, the man himself didn’t.

Parthiv wasn’t hasty on his return. Eight years out of the Test side — with his epitaph already written, sprinkled with sporadic look-ins in the shorter versions — must have taught him the virtues of being patient and perseverent.

He almost lounged himself in the chair next to the sight-screen of the practice nets, leisurely watching some of his peers batting, before he sauntered onto one of the grassy squares beside the centre strip, where fielding coach R Sridhar was waiting for him with an assortment of cricket balls in varied conditions, a couple of shiny ones, some abrade ones and few fully torn and lifeless ones.

Ever alert

Parthiv carefully assessed every ball, before throwing a couple back to an impatient Sridhar, whose shoulders were almost ready to creak by the time Parthiv wound up his keeping bit. A left-arm spinner of modest repute in the late 90s, he was given a thorough workaround by Parthiv. The first-ball he bowled, with an action not dissimilar to a left-handed Mushtaq Ahmed, slipped out of his palms and landed a few feet inches away from the leg-stump. But without any batsman hindering the view, Parthiv was able to swiftly move sideways and take the ball on the half-volley. Sridhar was clearly rusty, but here his rustiness was a blessing for the stumper as he was forced to make quick adjustments to gather the ball.

A dozen balls later, all of which he collected cleanly, he made the first fumble. The ball spat viciously from a good-length on the off-stump — it was quicker too — and the ball kinked to almost his shoulders. He was a touch late of react. He could just bring his gloves up till his ribs before the ball brushed the webbing of his gloves. He rehearsed a few times where his gloves should have been before signalling Sridhar to keep bowling similar balls. Sridhar tried his best to land the ball on the exact spot, but the balls just kept sailing harmlessly into his harms.

To spice up the proceedings, Sridhar cajoled one of the support staff, who was loitering, to fill in as a batman, with the intention of giving Parthiv a few inside-edged catches. But inept as the batsman was, he couldn’t even edge a single ball. A few jokes were chuckled and Sridhar completed his quota of overs, which if you were to keep count could be more close to 14-15.

Sridhar, then, moved closer to the middle of the pitch, and engaged Parthiv in a rather curious looking drill. Sridhar would kneel on the ground, with balls in both hands, which were folded behind, like when defenders in football stand during a free-kick near the box so as to minimise the chances of a handball. Then, without any hint or in preconceived order, he would briskly hurl them at him — one at a time.

Initially, Parthiv struggled to judge the trajectory, and sometimes the pace. Such training norms hadn’t existed in his previous stints with the team for sure. But steadily, he was getting in line with the ball and making the required adjustments with the feet.

In his comfort zone

Nearly one-and-a-half hours of acquainting with the new-age keeping manoeuvres , Parthiv, wiping the sweat off his brows, trudged back to the cooler and more salubrious environs of the practice nets, before padding up for the batting session. Both symbolically and figuratively, he was now in his comfort zone. Almost immediately, he took out that pull shot. Every time he plays this shot, he seems riding an imminent danger to get hurt. But he doesn’t, more often than not. He is not only in complete control of the ball, but also at his disdainful best. In fact, his last dazzle in international cricket — during his 95 at Chester-le-Street in 2011 — the pull was his most productive shot, and a stroke which he unfurled with unflagging accuracy despite three fielders prowling the arc from mid-wicket to fine leg. And he was pulling off the strokes against James Anderson, Stuart Broad and a pre-injury Tim Bresnan.

His batting skills had seldom been disputed, though the same cannot be said of his keeping utility. On his return to the Test side, it’s these yardsticks that he would be measured against. The rhetoric is always how good is he behind the stumps? Coach Anil Kumble, for one, is convinced of his keeping skills. “Parthiv has been really consistent both with his keeping as well as his batting. He was chosen for his keeping skills and his experience,” he opined in the press conference.

In that sense, Parthiv would be a touch relieved that he’s making his comeback in Mohali, where the surface isn’t prone to fitfulness as some other strips in the subcontinent. But irrespective of the how the pitch turns out to be, Parthiv must be feeling a little awkward by the whole situation he finds himself in. He is human enough to think of what lies ahead. Even if he passes the keeping test with flying colours, Wriddhiman Saha would be reinstated the moment he’s deemed fully fit.

Then, Parthiv is no longer 16. He’s well into 31. He has traversed through the whole plethora of emotions, from being touted as the new kid on the block to be left in cold and then to be completely written off. And he has surely emerged matured, though belied in his still-childish face. His motif will be to just live in the moment and optimise the rare glimmer hope into reviving what seemed a defunct international career, besides proving that his once-ridiculed keeping skills are no longer to be ridiculed at. That could be raging fire within that could impel him in Mohali. At least, it offers him one last shot at redemption.