After a long short-stop career, the 35-year-old Parthiv Patel has announced a full stop to his career.

Parthiv Patel’s career has been a unique one.

He has played 25 Tests, 38 ODIs, and two T20Is.

His last international game was during the famous Johannesburg Test.

Though he didn’t play, Parthiv Patel was a part of the Test squad during India’s first Test series win in Australia.

He helped India win the Johannesburg test, in 2018, on a treacherous pitch, and was part of another famous Indian overseas Test victory.

Only 35 years of age, Parthiv Patel made his debut back in 2002.

He was a part of the Test squad which one in England as a young and baby-faced boy.

The test series was drawn, one each as India won registered a famous win at Headingly.

His debut was under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, in a team full of legends.

He became a regular member of the squad for the next few years and found his name in the 2003 World Cup squad.

He didn’t miss many of India’s tests in the initial periods, but his glovework affected him later.

He didn’t feature in any of the games, as Rahul Dravid took the gloves, but was in the squad that made the finals.

He later went on to tour Australia, in which the Test series was drawn, and later Pakistan.

He was a brave batsman, with some beautiful contributions against formidable bowling attacks.

He has six half-centuries in Test cricket and also enjoyed some friendly battles, with one against Shoaib Akhtar being an example.

He has also had some match-saving knocks throughout his career.

His 19 not-out to save the test, early in his career, is an example of his ability, as Patel batted for more than 80 minutes.

His fearlessness pushed him to the opening spot as he did a decent job up the order.

Patel had an unusual journey as he played for India A, the under-19 squad, and the Indian team before playing senior domestic cricket.

He was a regular in the squad for the first two years of his career, but with deteriorating glove-work and other keepers’ emergence, Parthiv Patel lost his spot.

Dinesh Karthik was the first to push Patel out, and later MS Dhoni emerged and cemented the spot.

With MS Dhoni showing immense talent, the other keepers didn’t get too many opportunities, and Patel made many brief appearances later on.

He managed to find a place in the side on occasions where Dhoni didn’t play but couldn’t settle into the role.

After the 2011 World Cup, Parthiv Patel was tried as a specialist batsman in the absence of Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar.

He hit his highest ODI score during this period with a beautiful 95 against England.

However, he couldn’t maintain his form, as Parthiv Patel was again dropped to try other openers.

Before playing as a specialist batsman, Parthiv Patel showed decent form in the limited opportunities during Dhoni’s absence.

However, with heavy competition, he couldn’t hold on to his spot and played his matches over various periods.

His final stint was between 2016-2018, where he played five tests.

He remained in the Australian Test series but found himself out afterward, with Pant’s emergence and Saha’s return.

Patel has also done an excellent job at the domestic level.

He led the side admirably during the 2015 Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Ranji Trophy a season later.

His performance allowed Gujurat to win the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

He did even better a season later as Gujurat managed to chase down a record total against Mumbai in the Ranji finals.

The form shown prompted the selectors to bring him back to the national side for what turned out to be his final stint for India.

Though Patel hasn’t been regular for India, he has been a regular member of the IPL.

Parthiv Patel has played for six franchises, forming excellent relationships throughout his journey.

His opening partnerships with Matthew Hayden have been memorable early in his IPL career, while he has also won three IPL trophies.

He was part of the title-winning teams in 2010 with CSK and 2015,2017 with Mumbai Indians.

He was Mumbai’s leading run-scorer in the 2017 season and ran the batsman out off the final ball to seal Mumbai’s win.

Along with Mumbai and Chennai, Parthiv Patel played for Kochi Tuskers, Deccan Chargers, and Sunriser Hyderabad.

The last team he played for is the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

He opened the batting for Bangalore in 2019 and played a crucial role for them, but didn’t find a place in the side for 2020, as Devdutt Padikkal was preferred and Ab De Villiers taking the gloves.

His career finishes with some mind-boggling numbers as Patel has 11,240 first-class runs with a best of 206 and 27 centuries.

His keeping has not been the best as his career went on, but he finished with good numbers there too.

Overall, Patel has 486 catches and 77 stumpings.

Parthiv Patel retires as the fourth youngest Test debutant.

Parthiv Patel’s retirement also marks the end of an era, as he was one of the two only active players in the 2003 World Cup squad for India and the Headingly Test.

The other member is Harbhajan Singh, who is still an active member but hasn’t played in a while.