Three days after India won a historic World Cup in 2011, their bowling coach Eric Simons came out and called Munaf Patel the “unsung hero” of the triumph. The then-28-year-old had been one of the stalwarts of India’s bowling display in the tournament, finishing as India’s third-highest wicket-taker in the tournament.
Despite a career blighted with injuries, Patel has played under various Indian captains, ranging from Rahul Dravid to MS Dhoni to Anil Kumble. While he hasn’t played for India for almost six years now, he remains active on the domestic front and will be seen in action for the Gujarat Lions in the 10th season of the Indian Premier League.
In a conversation with Indian Express on Sunday, the now-33-year-old observed on the difference of captaincy styles between Dhoni and Virat Kohli. “I think, during Mahi’s [Dhoni] captaincy, so much of aggression was not [the] need of the hour,” said Patel. “In fact, we used to be more calm and relieved, on and off-field both.”
On Kohli, the pacer felt the Indian captain needs to know how to “control his emotions and aggression” now that he was a senior player. “Being a captain and a senior player, he is showing a little more aggression lately,” said Patel. “Earlier, as he played under the likes Dhoni, Anil Kumble, Dravid bhai and Virender Sehwag, he never needed to show this kind aggression. That time it was just his batting which showed aggression. Eventually it has helped other players, who are more or less of the same age and group, to perform.”
However, Patel was clear that Kohli’s aggression was not affecting the other players and cited the examples of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane about how they went about their business.
Moving on from the captaincy debate, Patel showered much praise on India’s current pace bowling duo of Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
“The two have been bowling tremendously well,” said the 33-year-old. “It is good to see them maintain consistency and maintaining pace along with swing. This, in my opinion, is the best lot India has ever had recently. Good performance from the two bowlers can be expected beyond doubts. Their combination can pay good dividends. Also not to forget we have Shami too.”
Patel also called Ravindra Jadeja “currently the best all-rounder in the world” and said it would not be easy to fill his gap in the Gujarat Lions. Jadeja will miss the start of the IPL season due to injury but Patel hoped that 36-year-old Shadab Jakati would manage to fill those big boots.
Special praise was also reserved for 21-year-old pace sensation Nathu Singh who will be Patel’s teammate at the Gujarat Lions this season. Patel said that Singh had “tremendous potential” and and had “the hunger to learn and excel”.
