India batting legend Sunil Gavaskar seems impressed with Harshal Patel’s transformation into a more rounded T20 bowler. Recently, the 31-year-old was repurchased by Royal Challengers Bangalore at the auction for INR 10.75 crores.
The pacer was the highest wicket-taker of the 2021 Indian Premier League, picking up a whopping 32 scalps from his 15 matches with an economy rate of 8.14. Emerging as RCB’s trusted death-bowling option throughout the tournament, he ended with an amusing moniker of ‘Purple Patel’ after he received the Purple Cap for the season.
Gavaskar gave his opinion on RCB’s bid for Patel and attributed his rising stocks to his upskilled game and range as he now makes smarter use of his variations, including the slower ball that dips and drifts and makes life difficult for batters in the end overs.
“Look he deserves every penny, every rupee that he’s earned at the auction. He put in a fabulous performance last year. And the best part about Harshal Patel is how he has reinvented himself. Earlier, he was a bowler batters were looking to face because he hardly had any change of pace.”
“He was being taken for a lot of runs. He is learning from it, he has improved from that. Now, he is the bowler that batters do not want to face because they don’t know what he is going to bowl,”
Gavaskar told Star Sports.
Strong performances for the Royal Challengers last year also earned Patel his maiden India call-up when he was picked for the home series against New Zealand in November. Playing two games versus the visitors, he bagged four wickets with an economy rate of 7.28.
Retained for the following set of T20Is versus the West Indies, Patel made a decent start to the series in Kolkata on February 16, finishing with figures of two for 37.
