Gujarat Titans have named a new assistant coach, who was the youngest Test wicketkeeper. He will also serve as a batting coach for the team. 

IPL 2022 champions Gujarat Titans are sorting out the coaching team before the IPL 2025 mega auction, which has been scheduled on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Parthiv Patel joins the Gujarat Titans coaching team

While the former Indian left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra will continue his head coach role for the team, his former national team teammate now joins Titans. Parthiv Patel has joined Gujarat Titans as an assistant coach and batting coach.

Previously, Parthiv served as a scout for the IPL team Mumbai Indians. Also, he worked for the International League T20 team Mumbai Emirates as a batting coach.

Parthiv played 25 Tests, 38 ODIs, and two T20Is. Making his Test debut at the age of 17 years and 152 days, he became the youngest Test debutant wicketkeeper as well as the youngest debutant wicketkeeper in international cricket among the ICC Full-Members. 

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Parthiv had a memorable career in the IPL and domestic cricket

The wicketkeeper-batter played 139 IPL matches while representing Chennai Super Kings, now-defunct Kochi Tuskers Kerala, now-defunct Deccan Chargers, SunRisers Hyderabad, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (previously known as Royal Challengers Bangalore), and Mumbai Indians. The left-handed batter scored 2848 runs in his IPL career with an average of 22.60 and a strike rate of 120.78. He hit 13 half-centuries in his IPL career, including his highest score of 81 runs. 

Parthiv was part of the three IPL champions, Chennai Super Kings in 2010 and Mumbai Indians in 2015 and 2017. 

Parthiv was successful in domestic cricket. Serving for Gujarat, he became the first captain to have won all three major titles in Indian domestic cricket. Under his leadership, Gujarat won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2012/13, Vijay Hazare Trophy 2015/16, and Ranji Trophy 2016/17.

The former Indian wicketkeeper batter Parthiv Patel is set to join the Gujarat Titans as their batting mentor for their upcoming IPL 2025 season.

According to a report by Times of India (TOI),"Sources reveal that Parthiv Patel will join the support staff led by Indian Head Coach Ashish Nehra".

Parthiv Patel will take the role from South Africa International and ODI World Cup Winning Coach, Gary Kirsten as he left the Titans to take the white-ball head Coach duties of the Pakistan Team. Parthiv represented Gujarat during his Domestic career and led them to win their maiden Ranji Trophy title against Mumbai in the 2016-17 season.

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The 39-year-old represented the National Team in all three formats and he is also the youngest wicketkeeper to represent the country when he made his debut in 2002.

Parthiv Patel and his IPL Career

Wicketkeeper batter has represented various teams in the IPL. He played for Chennai Super Kings from 2008 to 2010. Then he represented the currently defunct Kochi Tuskers Kerala. He then made the switch to the Deccan Chargers in 2012, followed by the Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2012. He played for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2014 and then joined Mumbai Indians from 2015 to 2017. His final stint in IPL was with Royal Challengers Bengaluru again from 2018 to 2020.

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In December 2020, he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket and joined the Mumbai Indians in a scouting role. He is also a commentator in IPL along with international matches as well.

Gujarat Titans will look to make a strong comeback after a disappointing 2024 season as they failed to make it to playoffs for the first time since their debut season. They finished at eighth position in points table last season.

Indian captain Rohit Sharma has been one of the best players for the Indian team for many years. However, not only as a player but as a captain he made a huge impact on the side which also included being supportive towards youngsters in the team – be it India or in IPL.

However, apart from Team India, he was the captain of Mumbai Indians and led the team to five IPL titles as well. Moreover, under his captaincy, Mumbai Indians made many youngsters’ future including Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. Recalling one such incident about Rohit Sharma backing the youngsters in the side, former Indian cricketer Parthiv Patel shared how Rohit saved Bumrah from being released by Mumbai Indians.

“Rohit is always with the players” – Parthiv Patel

“Rohit is always with the players, and the biggest examples of it are Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. Bumrah joined MI in 2014, but when he played his first season in 2015, it didn’t turn out that well. MI had decided to drop Bumrah midway through the season, but Rohit felt this was one solid player and that they should keep him. And you saw how from 2016, Bumrah’s performance reached the next level,” Parthiv Patel told JioCinema.

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“Same with Hardik Pandya. When he joined in 2015, he became quite the rage but in 2016 he had a bad season. The thing is when you’re an uncapped player, franchises release you quickly and then assess how a player is performing in Ranji Trophy or other domestic matches before maybe taking them back. But Rohit did not let it happen. That’s why these guys went on to become the players that they did,” Parthiv Patel again stated.

However, Parthiv Patel was once a player in the RCB squad before becoming an expert in the game. He once shared about Bumrah to Virat Kohli who also revealed that he had once informed Kohli about the then-unknown bowler Jasprit Bumrah. As per the veteran, Kohli had responded in a rather ignorant manner as well.

Parthiv Patel opines on how Kohli ignored Bumrah

“In 2014, when I was at RCB, I told Kohli there’s this bowler named Bumrah. Have
a look at him. Virat replied saying ‘Chhor na yaar. Ye Bumrah-Vumrah kya karenge?’ (Leave it. What will such players do?)” Parthiv had said to Cricbuzz.

“When he was first picked, Bumrah played Ranji Trophy for the first 2-3 years. 2013 was his first year, and he didn’t have a good season in 2014. In 2015, it was so bad that there were discussion going on that he might have to be sent back home midseason. But, he slowly began improving and Mumbai Indians really backed him. It was his own hard work and such backing that really brought out the best in him,” Parthiv Patel concluded.