Making a comeback into the Test team after a long time away from the game due to injury, New Zealand spinner Ajaz Patel felt like making a fresh start to his Test career, and could not sleep throughout the night leading up to the first day of the second Test against England.
“There were definitely nerves. I couldn’t get to sleep last night, I couldn’t figure out why… I got into bed quite early but the eyes just weren’t helping me. There was excitement as well, a long time between drinks,” Patel said in the post-match press conference.
Patel last played for the Blackcaps in the home series against India and missed the entire New Zealand summer due to injury. However, the spinner said he remained ‘positive’ and focussed more on improving other aspects of his game during his forced break.
“It’s been challenging. The injuries didn’t really help my cause, and our conditions not really favouring spinners much. At the same time, I always try to take the positive out of a negative. I used that time to work on a few things in my game; my fitness and my batting,” Patel added.
The pitch at Edgbaston offered Patel decent purchase for a first-day pitch and he said that spinners should be itching to ‘thrive’ on opportunities on such pitches to bring change in fortune for their sides. He expressed his readiness to change the game for the Blackcaps by taking extra responsibility if the team can set things up nicely in the first innings.
“As a spinner, you thrive on opportunities like that, Test cricket on a surface where it’s giving you some assistance to pull something together for the team. That’s something I enjoy the challenge of and extra responsibility. I’m looking forward to that, and hopefully we can set the game up and I can bring myself into my own,” Patel asserted.
Ajaz Patel was picked in the playing XI in place of Mitchell Santner, who cut his finger in the last Test against England. He was always on the money against English batsmen and picked up two wickets of Ollie Pope and Olly Stone while giving away a mere 34 runs in his 14 overs.