{"id":47744,"date":"2026-08-11T06:48:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T01:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/australia-u-19s-neel-patel-ready-to-embrace-india-challenge-the-wickets-will-be-quite-different-exclusive-cricket-news\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T06:48:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T01:18:46","slug":"australia-u-19s-neel-patel-ready-to-embrace-india-challenge-the-wickets-will-be-quite-different-exclusive-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/australia-u-19s-neel-patel-ready-to-embrace-india-challenge-the-wickets-will-be-quite-different-exclusive-cricket-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia U-19\u2019s Neel Patel ready to embrace India challenge: ‘The wickets will be quite different’ | Exclusive | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Australian U-19 all-rounder Neel Patel with his family. (Photo Courtesy: Cricket NSW)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

New Delhi:<\/span> Neel Patel’s first cricketing memory isn’t a cricket ground. It is the balcony of his family’s apartment in Australia, where his grandfather would bowl underarm to him and Patel, armed with a plastic foam bat, would try to hit the ball as hard as he could.It was simple, almost instinctive. There was no talk of technique, roles or long-term plans. There was just a child, a bat and a ball.That uncomplicated relationship with cricket has remained central to Patel’s development, even as the game around him has become increasingly serious. Now part of Australia’s Under-19 setup, the 17-year-old is looking ahead to the long tour of India, one that offers him a chance to test his game in conditions markedly different from those he has grown up playing in.“It\u2019s definitely going to be a really nice experience playing in India, especially in the hot conditions compared to Australia,” Patel tells TimesofIndia.com from Sydney. “The wickets will be quite different, so it’s about learning to adapt to the conditions and the bowlers as well.”<\/p>\n

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Neel Patel standing at the back in left corner with other Australia U-19 cricketers. (Photo Courtesy: Cricket Australia) <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Neel is among the 16 selected to travel for three one-day matches and two four-day games in Rajkot and Ahmedabad, respectively, starting September 13.For a young cricketer, the attraction of India is obvious. For Patel, it carries another layer. His father Punit Patel moved to Australia in 2001, and Neel was born there in 2009. Cricket, therefore, has always occupied a space between two cultures, though he does not describe his upbringing as particularly unusual.“I think it was quite normal, actually,” he says. “There are quite a lot of Indians in Sydney, and obviously lots of Australians as well. So I think it was quite a normal childhood.”<\/p>\n

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Some of the Australian players, like Ricky Ponting and Steve Smith, when I was growing up were my idols.<\/p>\n

Neel Patel<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Neel’s earliest memory of watching cricket came during the 2015 World Cup in Australia, when his family and friends went to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for one of the matches. By then, the child playing with a foam bat on a balcony had begun absorbing the sights and sounds of international cricket.There were Australian influences too. Ricky Ponting and Steve Smith<\/a> were among the players he admired while growing up. Patel also found inspiration in Indian cricketers, watching them and taking from their games the same quality he wanted to develop in his own: fearlessness.“Some of the Australian players, like Ricky Ponting when I was growing up, and Steve Smith,” he says on who influenced his cricket. “There were obviously some Indian cricketers as well. I enjoyed watching them play. They inspired me to enjoy the game and play fearlessly.”<\/p>\n

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Neel Patel also bowls off-spin. (Photo courtesy: Cricket Australia)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Patel’s own cricketing identity has evolved considerably. As a youngster, he was a genuine all-rounder. He opened the batting and bowled frontline spin in underage and representative cricket. He also experimented with pace in club cricket, sometimes bowling one over of spin and the next of pace simply because he enjoyed doing everything.Eventually, however, his batting began to demand more attention. Last year, Neel became one of the youngest players to score more than 1000 runs in Sydney Premier Cricket in a calendar year.“As I progressed into grade cricket, they realised my batting potential,” he says. “The next season, I opened the batting and from there I started prioritising batting a little bit more because I enjoyed it as well and was getting a lot of success from it.”The bowling has stayed. Off-spin became his preferred discipline after he found himself taking wickets with it and enjoying the craft. His father helped him work on it, and Patel saw an opportunity to make the two disciplines complement each other.“I began getting quite good at it, so we stuck with it,” he says. “It also complemented my batting, so it wasn’t too much of a stretch.”But the India tour is likely to test the batting side of his game more closely. Patel knows that conditions in India can expose technical limitations that might remain hidden elsewhere.<\/p>\n

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I think India is definitely a good place to learn how to play spin, particularly, and how to bat in tough conditions when it’s really hot and you have to bat for long periods.<\/p>\n

Neel Patel<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

He has already played in Delhi, Bengaluru and Jaipur, and has noticed the difference from Australia. Less grass, flatter wickets, low bounce and the influence of spin create a different examination for a batter.“In India, it’s quite hot and the wickets have less grass and aren’t as bouncy. They favour batters and spinners much more,” he says. “I think India is definitely a good place to learn how to play spin, particularly, and how to bat in tough conditions when it’s really hot and you have to bat for long periods.”That is where his current development work comes in.Patel identified that his front-foot game was already a strength and decided to spend more time developing his back-foot play. The objective was not simply to add shots, but to become harder to contain.<\/p>\n

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Neel is among the 16 selected to travel for three one-day matches and two four-day games in Rajkot and Ahmedabad, respectively, starting September 13. (Photo Courtesy: Cricket Australia)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“I thought, ‘Why not focus on my back-foot game a little bit more in the off-season to become a complete batter?'” he says.The thinking is particularly relevant in India, where bowlers may not offer the same opportunities to drive through the front of the wicket. Patel wants to be able to access more areas of the ground when the ball is delivered shorter.“Working on my back-foot game allows me to access all parts of the ground much better,” he says. “I can play all types of shots, both front-foot and back-foot.”There is a similar sense of purpose in how he approaches the wider development of his game. Patel says he is not particularly superstitious. Instead, he keeps short and long-term goals to give his training a clear direction.<\/p>\n

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With the four-day game, I want to understand the pace of the game, how to play it and just enjoy the four-day experience.<\/p>\n

Neel Patel<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

“It helps me have a purpose when I’m training and playing, and it helps me stay accountable for what I’m doing,” he says.That mindset could prove valuable on a tour that demands adaptation. Alongside the four-day game, Patel will have the opportunity to experience a different rhythm of cricket, different bowling styles and the challenge of spending an extended period away from home.He is not arriving in India with the expectation of having everything figured out. He is arriving to learn.“With the four-day game, I want to understand the pace of the game, how to play it and just enjoy the four-day experience,” he says.For the boy who once tried to smash underarm deliveries from his grandfather on an apartment balcony, the journey has moved a long way. But the essence remains familiar: bat in hand, ball coming towards him, and the instinct to find a way to hit it.Only now, the challenge is much bigger. And for Patel, India represents another opportunity to discover how far his game can travel.<\/div>\n


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Australian U-19 all-rounder Neel Patel with his family. (Photo Courtesy: Cricket NSW) New Delhi: Neel Patel’s first cricketing memory isn’t a cricket ground. It is the balcony of his family’s apartment in Australia, where his grandfather would bowl underarm to him and Patel, armed with a plastic foam bat, would try to hit the ball […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t