I realized whatever I was offering, the market wasn’t interested: Harshal Patel

The right-arm speed merchant Harshal Patel has been the find of the now-postponed 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Harshal has been featuring in the T20 extravaganza since 2012 but it was only in 2021 that he managed to make heads turn with his spectacular performance with the ball.

Playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), the seamer started his run with a bang as in the first match he took a stunning five-wicket-haul against the defending champions Mumbai Indians. It was a season of a comeback for the 30-year-old as he was the highest wicket-taker in the tournament throughout.

Harshal picked a whopping 17 wickets in just seven matches at an average of 15.12. This was a massive turnaround considering that in the past two seasons, the pacer featured in combined seven games and scalped just five wickets. The Gujarat-born reflected on his performance in the T20 Championship as he touched the areas that prompted him to better his game.

Not getting a bid other than Delhi was a kick in the stomach: Harshal Patel

In a conversation with the Hindustan Times, Harshal revealed that the incident that hurt him the most was not getting any bid apart from Delhi Capitals during the IPL 2018 auction. The particular incident hit the seamer hard and he realized that his talent isn’t up to the mark and he isn’t providing the IPL market what was demanded. 

Since then, the speed merchant has tried to change his mindset and has been working hard to improve his game and produce some stunning performances. “It is all individual work, right? It is your journey, people will come and lend you a hand or give you a few words of confidence but at the end of the day, you have to put in the work, be willing to fail spectacularly.”

“That is what I realized after the last season. In 2018 also, not getting a bid other than Delhi was a kick in the stomach. I realized whatever I was offering the market wasn’t interested. I needed to put myself in a position to win games for the team, which I was doing consistently at the domestic level. I just needed to have that change in mindset. That is what has happened probably in the last year-and-a-half,” said Harshal Patel.