Am keeping the wicket better than I have ever done before, says Parthiv Patel

Veteran Indian wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel may not be featuring in the Indian side regularly but the 32-year-old has revealed that he is working hard on his wicketkeeping skills and is ready as a standby. Speaking to the Hindu, Patel said, “I have been working hard on my keeping of late. I feel I am now keeping the wicket better than I have ever done before. I am quite ready as a standby. These days I have two separate sessions — for batting and keeping.” Parthiv, who was recently a part of the Indian squad, recalled his experience of sharing the dressing room with Virat Kohli and said, “It was exciting to be part of the team led by Virat Kohli. And it felt nice to have done well on my comeback and contributed to the team.” Parthiv who recently crossed the milestone of 10,000 runs in domestic cricket, spoke about his experience of leading Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy and said, “I have been captaining Gujarat for 10 years now. It is a challenge that I enjoy. It is one match a time for me. I am delighted, though, that we could begin our campaign on a winning note. And it is great to see young left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai making a dream debut to his career,” he added. “I am happy the way I have tackled the challenges from the time I started playing Test cricket. Then being dropped and suffering a couple of seasons with not even 250 as season’s aggregate was painful. I would be lying if I say I was not low on confidence. I began to doubt myself,” Patel concluded.