A case for T20 specialist Anuja Patil to be an all-format player

Snehal Pradhan

26 Sep 2018

New Update

A case for T20 specialist Anuja Patil to be an all-format player — Anuja Patil (left) in action. ©SLC

At one end of the spectrum, you have Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, who have said before that if women played Test matches regularly, they would prefer to play just that format. At the other end is India’s T20 specialist, Anuja Patil.

Patil has played 41 T20Is for India; only six Indians have played more, so that makes her among the more experienced players in the squad. But what stands out is her empty ODI column. She has been typecast as a T20I specialist, but this year she is showing why she could be looked at as an option for the ODI side as well. “It feels good that people recognise me as a T20 specialist, but still I have hopes of being in the ODI team,” she said after the fourth T20I, where she took three wickets and scored 54*.

Look at her batting record and it is littered by DNBs (did not bat). Of the 29 times, she has come to the crease, 21 have been at No. 6 or lower. Only 5 times has she batted at No. 5 or higher, leaving aside the experiment with her opening the batting in 2012. “This is the first time I’ve batted in the power play,” she said.

‘This’ being a rare promotion to No. 5 in the fourth T20I against Sri Lanka. Patil was sent in ahead of Harmanpreet Kaur when India were 41 for 3 chasing 135 in a 17 over game. She came in in the fifth over and only walked out at the end of the game. She and Jemimah Rodrigues both struck fifties to see India home with eight balls to spare. Throughout the innings, there were many points where I saw sides to her game I had not seen before. And I’ve been watching her for a while.

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Patil and I played our cricket for the same domestic team, Maharashtra. She emerged as a precocious teenager from Kolhapur, the state’s southernmost district. Known for its temples as well as its erstwhile aristocracy, Patil showed touches of royalty in her game; she may favour the sweep, but there is a certain arrogance in her cover drive as well.

She quickly became a central member of the team, batting at No. 4, fielding in the slips and infield, and plying her canny off-spin with both old and new ball. Right from the start, Patil displayed an innate ‘game-sense’; she had a knack for knowing when to bowl which of her variations, could absorb pressure, and was unfazed while batting in a chase. Her ability to bowl yorkers (yes, a spinner can bowl yorkers) meant she was often entrusted the death overs. And before the rise of Smriti Mandhana, she was captain of the state team. “For Maharashtra, it’s up to just three to four players to pull the team through, so I’m used to taking more responsibility,” she said.

The young Patil was known for her temper, often as spicy as the tambda rassa famous in her hometown. But then she was in her early twenties. Now 26, Patil seems more settled, especially in the Indian team, benefitting from a few cool heads around her. “It’s lot better than before,” she laughs. “With experience, I have become more calm, I have learned. I see Smriti, or Mithu di, how they handle the situation. They never panic.”

Patil always showed an affinity to facing spin; being a spinner herself she seemed to anticipate what was coming. In domestic cricket, she had a reputation of struggling against pace. But her innings at the Colombo Cricket Club on Monday (September 24) showed that that had changed.

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By the time Sri Lanka brought back seamer Udeshika Prabodhani, Patil had gotten her eye in. As the bowler ran in, left arm over, Patil stood outside leg, giving her a clear sight of the target. Prabhodani took the bait and aimed for the stumps. Patil took the width and aimed for the boundary. The ball took the hint and soared over cover for four.

The medium pace of Nilakshi de Silva was employed in the thirteenth over, starting a little cat and mouse game. Patil stood outside off, looking to target the area behind the short fine-leg fielder. De Silva bowled down the leg side, leaving Patil sprawled on the ground in an attempt to scoop. A couple of good balls were respected for singles, and the bowler seemed to have won the over. Until the last ball, when Patil stepped out and forgot about fine leg, smashing over cover instead.

For those who would discount Sri Lanka’s pace attack, Patil showed the same ability in the Tri-series T20I tournament in India in March. She had scores of 35 and 38* against Australia, whose fast bowlers are a tad more threatening than Prabodhani and de Silva.

“I’ve worked on facing the pacers in the off-season. Even for the short ball which they bowl, I worked on my pull and cut.” In the nets, you may even see an uppercut when she’s in the mood.

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At 26, Patil is past the age where any Railway sports-quota jobs will be available to her. So the recent contracts issued by the BCCI are what give her the financial stability to play. Five years ago, a player of her age without a railway job would most likely have been lost to the system. Now she’s able to spend her entire day training at the Sahara Cricket Academy at home, under her coach Suraj Jadhav, without worrying about how to keep the lights on.

Her current form presents the temptation to include her in the ODI format, where India are currently trying out D Hemalatha as the off-spinning all-rounder. While Hemalatha has impressed this series, Patil already has years of experience in international cricket, and is a major contributor in the One Day format for her state team. It’s not an outlandish idea for the specialist tag to be set aside, and her all-round abilities could give the team the balance it needs.

Harmanpreet Kaur Mithali Raj Smriti Mandhana BCCI Women Jemimah Rodrigues Deepti Sharma Anuja Patil