A left-arm spinner with a busy action, Patel is more of a teaser than a turner, pressurising batsmen into mistakes with his formidable accuracy. His career for Kent has been steady rather than startling, but he was chosen for England against the country of his birth, India, in 1996, during one of Phil Tufnell's absences from the side. Patel was unlucky: he bowled only 10 overs in the first Test on a greentop at Edgbaston, was dropped for the second and milked with ease on a Trent Bridge featherbed in the third. And he fell even further out of the reckoning when he missed virtually the whole of the 1997 season through injury. Unlike his bowling, his batting is unorthodox: he's strong square of the wicket, and likes to whack the ball over point, but he can knuckle down too - as his brief Test career showed - and relishes the role of nightwatchman. He was appointed Kent's vice-captain in 2006 and has been in fine form in recent seasons before announcing his retirement in February 2008.
Lawrence Booth February 2008