Follow UsHaryana cricket, right ahead of a new domestic season, is in hot water as not one but two of their stalwarts, first Jayant Yadav and now Harshal Patel, have left them for greener pastures elsewhere. While Jayant, originally from Haryana, switched to Puducherry to play all formats, an original Gujarati, Harshal, has moved back home to Gujarat.
"Right from 2010-11 since my Under-19 days, almost the entirety of my professional career has been with Haryana. I owe a lot to them," Harshal was quoted as saying to ESPNcricinfo in his parting message.
"If that move to Haryana as an 18-year-old hadn't worked out for me, I would probably have moved to the USA and not played cricket in India,” remembered Harshal, who had moved to Haryana as an 18-year-old ahead of the 2009-10 season.
Pointing out the reason for his move back home, Harshal, who is now 34 and has 74 First-Class and 212 T20 matches under his belt, said, "It was getting difficult for me to be away from my family for long periods of time. I wanted to come back and see if I could finish my career here. I first asked Anil Patel [secretary, Gujarat Cricket Association] and he was gracious enough to say, 'This is your home, welcome back’.”
So will the Indian Premier League (IPL) purple cap holder with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Vijay Hazare Trophy winner with Haryana play red-ball cricket too?
Answering this, Harshal said, "While my specialisation will remain white-ball, I'm only more than happy to take any opportunities that come my way with red-ball. My body allows me to bowl 20 overs a day over two months or however long the Ranji Trophy season is; it doesn't bother me.”
Harshal has already had chats with Gujarat skipper Axar Patel and coach Ramesh Powar, a former India spinner as well. It would not be surprising to see him roll over the arm and smash the willow come Ranji Trophy 2025-26.