Monank Patel batted like a champion. Taking on some of the top bowlers from Pakistan, not for once did the 31-year-old look under pressure.
Rather, he let his willow do the talking and riding on his gritty half-century, the USA managed to pull off one of its biggest cricketing victories - beating Pakistan in a T20 World Cup fixture.
In Dallas on Thursday, a calm and composed Monank led the USA from the front and ensured there were no slip-ups despite the game slipping into a Super Over.
From Malad to San Francisco: Saurabh Netravalkar finally has his moment under the sun
While his level-headedness and batting prowess earned Monark enough praises, it was also an emotional outing for the wicketkeeper-batter from Anand - about 70 kilometres south east of Ahmedabad - who battled the odds to chase his dreams.
Monank was just eleven years old when his father Dilip - a former wicketkeeper-batsman himself - introduced him to cricket. Hailing from a cricketing family, where his father and uncle Chintan Patel played at the district level, Monank would watch his favourite cricketers on television; put up giant posters of Sachin Tendulkar in his room, and eventually dreamed of donning the India colours some day.
By the time he turned 13, Monank was leading the Anand district team in the Gujarat Cricket Association affiliated U-15 tournaments and piled up a massive 144 and a brilliant 166 against the district teams of Surat and Bharuch respectively.
Monank Patel had a love for the bat right from his childhood. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Back then, the U-15 tournaments were a three-game affair and despite falling for a duck in the opener, his daddy hundreds did not go unnoticed in the cricketing circles of Gujarat.
Aunshuman Gaekwad, who was then the head coach at the GCA, took note of Monank’s performances and over the next few years, he was part of the age-group tournaments. “
He was a fine talent, and once we drafted him into the district team, he proved his mettle,” says Swetal Patel, the secretary of the Anand District Cricket Association.
While he continued to have decent outings at the district level and even led Anand district in the senior-level tournaments, a call-up in the Gujarat state senior team eluded him as players from Ahmedabad and Surat dominated the show.
“Those were challenging times for sure. During the age-group cricket days, Monank played along with Jasprit Bumrah and Axar Patel, but somehow, he didn’t really get that break in the senior team,” Swetal says.
That’s when Monank decided to shift base to the U.S., in 2014.
Monank Patel along with his father Dilip. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“A lot of his family members were settled in the U.S. and he, too, wanted to try his luck. It was a tough decision for sure because he wasn’t sure whether he could continue with cricket in the U.S., but over the years, he has been able to chase his dreams,” Swetal, who has known Monank and his family for years, adds.
Life, of course, wasn’t quite easy in the U.S., but Monank - a die-hard fan of Mahendra Singh Dhoni - did not give up. During an interaction with Sportstar back in 2020, when he was in India with the USA team, Monank revealed how he opened a Chinese restaurant in South Carolina around 2016, but the business never really took off - forcing him to eventually return to New Jersey and be with his ailing mother, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
“I decided to sell off my business and return to (New) Jersey. Those were challenging times, but those experiences also made me tougher,” Monank had said.
Around the same time, in 2018, he made it to the USA team and once again rekindled his hopes of playing cricket. After some significant performances in the List A tournaments, Monank made his international T20 debut in March 2019 against United Arab Emirates in Dubai, but he could only score nine runs before being run out. But over the next few months, he stamped his class with a hundred against Uganda in Oman.
However, it wasn’t smooth sailing throughout, as he faltered against Nepal and had to put in the hard yards again to regain the confidence and the COVID-19 restrictions made matters difficult.
During the first wave of the pandemic, he was stuck in India for five months and trained indoors, before things eventually became normal.
While those two years were challenging for every sportsman, it was also an opportunity for Monank to work on his game and start afresh. The rest, as they say, is history.
Little less than a decade ago, Monank wasn’t quite sure whether he would be able to pad up and hit the ground again, but riding on self-belief and indomitable spirit, ‘Monu’ - as he is referred to as by family and friends - dreamed and eventually led USA to two consecutive wins in the ongoing T20 World Cup.
Dreams do come true!
Comments
SHARE