T20 Blast 2022 – Summit Patel Who would have thought I would play 20 years of T20 cricket? It’s pretty special

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Patel Summit he is the second biggest player in the history of English domestic T20 cricket as Vitality Blast approaches its 20th season, an achievement that must have seemed incredible to him in his first experience with the format.
In the inauguration year of what the Twenty20 Cup was, Patel made 10, not 13 balls on its T20 debut for Nottinghamshire against Leicestershire at Trent Bridge and two days later the ball was thrown for the first time in a televised match against Yorkshire at Headingley.

“I was still in school at the time and I told everyone at school to watch out for me,” Patel recalls. “But then my first ball in T20 cricket was a non-ball. It went for six. And the free kick is also for six so I hit one ball for 14.” Michael Lumb, his future teammate, followed suit and took his only advantage in 28 runs; even in the days before ‘match-ups’ entered normal speech, left-handed bowling towards a left-handed striker’s set was a dangerous game.

“No one knew how to play T20 cricket in that first year,” Patel says. “We didn’t know what a good result was, we didn’t know which players to use. Nobody knew anything: the teams were trying to hit the clips, everything they could think of. We just didn’t know: it felt like a trial, really.

It was just a case of ‘try to get as much as you can, save a few doors for the back’ and off we went. From a bowling point of view, it was ‘if you doubt it, bowl yorkers’ – no slower balls, no bumpers. it’s played out so there was no planning at all. “

Patel’s own experience is shaped by Notts ’fights: they won five of their first 18 games in the first three seasons of the T20, failing to reach the knockout stage until qualifying for the 2006 finals. that was what needed to be done at the time, ”he muses.

The contrast is sharp with a team that has now won more T20 games (128) than any other county and reached the knockout stage in each of the last six seasons, winning the 2017 and 2020 titles. Patel has been constant and will always be with Ravi Bopar one of only two players to appear in each of the first 20 seasons of English domestic T20 cricket, following the retirements of Gareth Batty and Rikki Clarke. He became one last year the first man in tournament history play 200 matches.

“Who would have thought I’d play 20 years of T20 cricket? That’s pretty special, to be honest,” he says. “Playing Blast every year for the same district was unreal. I was very lucky. The T20 gave the boys a chance to fly the world, meet new friends and make a difference: it was great for English cricket.”

Patel himself has played in almost all T20 leagues – BBL, BPL, CPL, LPL, PSL and Super Smash – and is now a specialist in short form, having signed a 2020 White Ball contract. “he says. “I advise everyone to do this: you need basic skills in hitting, bowling and playing four-day cricket before heading to the franchise.”

He will once again be a key player for Notts 2022 when the tournament kicks off in two weeks, bowling much of his powerplay overs and adding hitting depth to give them top-notch permission to fight the new ball. WITH Dan Christian returning as captain, they are again an extremely experienced team and bookmakers ’favorites for the pre-season title.
They won the North group last year, but dropped out after a dramatic collapse against Hampshire in the quarterfinals, which took place more than a month after the group stage due to Sto. “After we played so well in 90% of the game and then lost, it was pretty frustrating, to be honest,” says Patel. “I know the boys are desperate to make it right.
“We have top players and we know how to do it. We have a lot of experience that counts a lot; Dan Christian is coming back this year who says ‘old is gold’ and that is absolutely true. As soon as we start, it will be difficult for the teams to come and play against us. We want to put pressure on every opposition. “

Several counties are concerned about the availability of players for the Blast, with the England Test and ODI series against New Zealand and the Netherlands, respectively both clashing with group matches. Ben Duckett and Joe Clarke are Notts players who are most likely to be hit, but expect to keep their team’s core for most of the tournament.

“We all want the boys to be elected to England,” says Patel. “That’s why we play our cricket. We have great depth so if the boys are selected, we can cover it, but if not, they will have to throw them out for Notts.”

And if winning a third title of equal record isn’t enough, there’s additional personal motivation for Patel as he strives to keep up with Danny Briggs at the top wicket-taking list of all times in the tournament. “I’ve been with him from toe to toe for years. Briggsy is a good bowler – he flies under the radar – but so am I … I hope to get to the top at some point.”

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