Since graduating from the Essex County Cricket Academy in 2017, young promising right-hand batsman, Rishi Patel has been an exciting player to watch, currently opening the batting for Leicestershire in the Division Two County Championship.
From a young age, Rishi Patel knew he wanted to play cricket. At the age of 12, Patel signed with the Essex County Cricket academy.
Throughout his early stages in the academy, Patel found it hard to settle in and thought maybe he wasn’t quite good enough to carry on.
“Going through the academy the answers were how I was never quite good enough, sort of around there, but not amazingly good to carry on,” Patel said.
“During my age group, it was very mixed. Sometimes I’d be opening the batting and sometimes I’d be batting down at eight and bowling my leg-spin.”
Despite having a brilliant year playing in the academy’s Under 17s, Patel played a few more years before being released and travelling down to Australia.
Patel would then come back to Essex on trial for a couple of years.
By this stage, Patel's cricket career was in question.
“I had planned to go to university, I’d pretty much given up being a cricketer. I thought this was sort of the end of the road.” - Rishi Patel
In 2017, Patel had a good year with the Essex academy and by the end of that season, Patel was offered a two-year deal with the senior squad.
During his two years, Patel was part of the 2019 County Champions winning squad.
Patel reflected on how special that moment was for him and how he was privileged to contribute to the team.
“That would be probably one of the best cricketing days,” he said.
“That year I was fortunate to be involved in a very good team. I contributed a little bit, but that team they had then was unbelievable and everything was great.”
Whilst at Essex, Patel was fortunate enough to play alongside former England test captain Alistair Cook.
Patel shared his experiences with Cook and spoke about how he learnt so much from him, lots of which he has now tried to recreate in his own game.
“It was really nice to obviously bat with him (Cook) and what an amazing player, but I used to love watching him bat in nets and stand behind the stumps and just watch him and see what he did,” Patel said.
“The thing I found so amazing was his ability to pick up length so quickly … he is very much in his own bubble which is something that I have tried to recreate.”
Despite parting ways with Essex, Patel still receives support from former teammates including former Essex captain Ryan ten Doeschate.
“I was only at Essex for a couple of years, but I still get texts from a few boys, Tendo (Ryan ten Doeschate) was a big influence who gave me my debut and he’s always texting me after I’ve done well.”
Now at Leicestershire, Patel has been working closely with coach James Taylor who has been an unbelievable support and mentor.
“He (Taylor) is one of the reasons why I stayed in England this winter rather than opting to go away, because I really wanted to work with him and I’d heard really good things about him,” Patel said.
“He has really helped me be a lot calmer and more settled and sort of understanding my role and how to get the best out of myself.”
In October 2020, Patel was signed by Leicestershire on a three-year deal, where despite the decision being difficult, would turn out to benefit his cricket career and opportunities.
“The move was about the opportunity to play cricket, play first team cricket,” Patel said.
“It was very hard to move away from family, especially moving during lockdown. There were points where I was like, have I made the right decision to move up here (Leicestershire).”
Over the preseason, Patel would travel to India for a six-week training camp where he would work on improving his technique against spin, as well as his endurance and fitness.
“I would probably have 2-3 sessions of batting a week, but when I would bat it would be about two hour sessions in hot conditions.”
Just recently, Patel reached 1000 first class runs and scored his first maiden first class century against Yorkshire, making him one of the more exciting players to watch and follow in this season’s campaign.
Patel has found that his process is key towards his success and hopes to maintain his recent form for the remainder of the season.
“I’ve got to a place where I have a process which is repeatable, and I can trust it. I think that’s the key thing being able to repeat a process mentally between balls to keep you in the moment.”
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