In a surprising development ahead of CPL 2021, former India U-19 World Cup winner Smit Patel has joined the Barbados Tridents team. He will now play with the likes of Chris Morris, Thisara Perera and Mohammad Amir in the Caribbean Premier League.
It is pertinent to note that Smit Patel had scored the winning runs for the Indian U-19 team in the 2012 U-19 World Cup. He played under the captaincy of Unmukt Chand. After that stint, Smit also played much domestic cricket for Baroda, Goa, Gujarat and Tripura in domestic cricket.
Patel was close to breaking to the Indian cricket team. In his career, he got a chance to play for India U-23s, India Blue, West Zone and also Indian Board President’s XI. However, he could not make it to the senior Indian team.
In all, Smit played 55 first-class matches, 43 List-A games and 28 T20s in his domestic career. He had the best average in first-class cricket, where he scored 3,278 runs at an average of 39.49, with his highest score being 236.
Smit Patel is not the first Indian to become a part of CPL
The BCCI does not allow its active cricketers to participate in foreign leagues. However, a player can become a freelancer after retiring. If they play in a foreign league, they will not have permission to play domestic cricket in India or in the Indian Premier League.
Last year, Praveen Tambe had turned up for the Trinbago Knight Riders in CPL 2020. He won the trophy in his first season, but TKR did not retain him. It will be interesting to see how Smit Patel performs on CPL debut. Here is the complete Barbados Tridents squad:
Barbados Tridents squad for CPL 2021: Jason Holder, Johnson Charles, Shai Hope, Kyle Mayers, Joshua Bishop, Hayden Walsh Jr, Raymon Reifer, Justin Greaves, Nyeem Young, Smit Patel, Chris Morris, Thisara Perera, Oshane Thomas, Azam Khan, Ashley Nurse, Shafiqullah Ghaffari and Mohammad Amir (Direct signing).
