Recalibrated Harshal Patel finds his best form again

Harshal Patel displacing Jasprit Bumrah from the perch of wicket-takers’ list is just one side of the quiet turnaround from the previous season when he was neither prolific nor very economical.

More curious, however, is how Patel — with 16 wickets — is way ahead of Bumrah’s 11 in the ‘wickets in the death overs’ column as well. An institution unto himself when it comes to bowling in the death overs, Bumrah has pushed himself this season. Yet to be bested by Patel, who in fairness has fewer variations, in a passage of play Bumrah is expected to boss around, says something about him.

The most obvious gift is the control with which Patel achieves almost exactly the version of slower delivery (evidently, he has quite a few). Now add to that the dipping slower ball that Patel has seemed to master better than anyone. Riyan Parag was at the other end of one of those on Wednesday. Well set on 48 at his home ground, Parag had swung across the line and missed Patel’s in-dipping slower completely. And since it struck him as a low full toss, there couldn’t have been any ambiguity about the ball going on to hit the stumps.

Dismissals like this tend to be trivialized by attributing it to bowler’s luck that made the batter miss an ideally spankable delivery. But that’s not the case if Patel is the said bowler.

That this wasn’t happenstance can be argued with the example of MS Dhoni’s dismissal earlier this month. What Parag missed on his front foot on Wednesday was a slower yorker at Dharamsala because Dhoni was batting from inside his crease. He missed and the ball snuck under the toe-end of Dhoni’s bat to disturb his stumps. The lines have always been impeccable but on both occasions, Patel’s biggest feat was hoodwinking Parag and Dhoni with the slower variation.

“It is a difficult delivery to execute but once you start executing, it gives you a lot of confidence,” said Patel after Punjab Kings’ five-wicket win against Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday. “If the batter doesn’t pick it, then it increases your chance of getting a wicket. I’ve been bowling it for almost five years now. In the last year and a half, I wasn’t able to execute it consistently so I didn't try it in the first half of the IPL.”

Patel is no longer an India prospect. In fact, the jury is still out on whether Patel has missed the bus to the India team once and for all. But there can be no denying that even at 33, he strives to be better. Which is why this must rank as one of Patel’s better seasons where he is not only the sole bowler to dismiss Dhoni so far but also has Virat Kohli’s wicket to show. The slower ball remains his go-to delivery but Patel isn’t relying only on that every time.

“It gives me so many options at the death, the batters are ready for that slower one and I can sneak in a yorker or a quick length ball,” he said. “And when you get the batters out, they can’t get that acceleration at the death.”

Which is exactly what Bumrah does, the only difference being whatever he does is dissected and celebrated every time. Whereas Patel has gone quietly, almost unnoticed, about his job. And that seems unfair considering there isn’t any easing up on the criticism on the occasions he gets clobbered as badly as any other great bowler. In fairness, there can be only one Bumrah, but Patel operating like this gives death-overs bowling a refreshing alternate dimension and a way to stay under the same spotlight as Bumrah.

“He is someone who I see as a competitor,” said Patel. “I aspire to be as good as him.”

Most wickets in death overs (16-20) in IPL 2024

16 - Harshal Patel

11 - Jasprit Bumrah

9 - Arshdeep Singh

9 - Mukesh Kumar

9 - T Natarajan

9 - Tushar Deshpande