Small even for his tender age, when Parthiv Patel led his side onto the stage during the Wisden Indian Cricketer of the Century Awards in London in July 2002, some people assumed he was the team mascot. But within a month he had instead become Test cricket's youngest wicketkeeper - at 17 years, 153 days - when called up to replace the injured Ajay Ratra for the second Test at Trent Bridge. And he didn't do too badly either, scoring a gutsy, unbeaten 19 which helped stave off an Indian defeat. Parthivl's glovework has varied from the competent to the shoddy - he was splendid in the home series against West Indies in 2002-03, but then struggled to inspire confidence thereafter, especially when standing up to the spinners. His ability with the bat ensured that he got an extended run - he scored an aggressive 62 at Sydney in 2003-04, and then faced up to Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami with plenty of poise, scoring 69 as an opener. However, those batting performances weren't enough to gloss over increasingly sloppy work behind the stumps, and the selectors' patience finally ran out after the third Test of the home series against Australia, when he was replaced by Dinesh Karthik. Parthiv's form took a turn for the better in 2007, on a twin tour of Zimbabwe and Harare for India A, where he hit three hundreds and a half-century. In the first match of a series against South Africa A at home Parthiv opened up with a fourth century on the trot.

In 2008, his efforts were rewarded with a call-up to the squad for the Test-series in Sri Lanka.

Adam Gilchrist is Patel's role model: if he can bounce back and achieve even half the success Gilchrist has as a wicketkeeper-batsman, Indian cricket will be well served.

S Rajesh (August 7, 2008)

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