NZ spinner Ajaz Patel gets 'goosebumps' ahead of facing India in ICC WTC final

It seems that New Zealand spinner of Indian origin Ajaz Patel might be in the perfect frame of mind ahead of the ICC World Test Championship final against his home country India. 

The top two Test sides will battle it out in a one-off Test match for the biggest prize in red-ball cricket between June 18-22 at the Ageas Rose Bowl in Southampton.  Ahead of the high-voltage clash, Patel has said that he is getting goosebumps just weeks before playing against the country of his birth.

'I just got goosebumps thinking about it': Ajaz Patel

“Yeah, I just got goosebumps thinking about it, to be honest. From where I started my journey in terms of immigrating to New Zealand to then be in a position where you are in England, the home of cricket, playing against India one of the best nations when it comes to cricket and also your birth country while representing New Zealand which I now call home. It’s kind of like going full circle,” said Patel while speaking in a video shared by New Zealand Cricket on their official Twitter handle.

“But you know, that’s my cricketing journey and I guess it would be quite rewarding to play against India out there and hope I could sit back and look back at something like that in the future and go ‘that was an amazing time in my career’. I am sure it is something any cricketer would cherish for as long as they live and it will be a hell of a story to tell later on,” the left-arm spinner added.

Patel emigrated with his family from Mumbai when he was eight years old. 

Ajaz Patel's cricketing career

In May last year, the 32-year-old was awarded a central contract by New Zealand Cricket ahead of the 2020–21 season.
In his short career at the highest level since he had first burst onto the scene in late 2018, Ajaz Patel has represented the BlackCaps in seven Tests, and, two T20Is where he has managed to register 23 scalps in both formats of the game. 

Both teams look to end their ICC title drought

Both teams will be looking to gain dominance in the longest format of the game by winning the biggest prize in Test cricket. While India will be eager to avenge their heart-breaking World Cup 2019 semi-final loss, the Black Caps on the other hand will be hoping to make amends by winning a major silverware for the first time in 21 years. The Kiwis had made it to the deciders of the previous two editions of the World Cup (2015 & 2019) but could not succeed in going all the way. In fact, they had agonizingly fallen short in the 2019 edition where both England and New Zealand were tied at the identical score of 241 after regulation time as the English team eventually went on to left their maiden World Cup trophy due to an infamous boundary count rule.

Meanwhile, India on the other hand have failed to win an ICC event after the 2013 edition of the Champions Trophy. In fact, they have made it to the semi-finals thrice (World Cup 2015, World T20 2016 & World Cup 2019) and have also made two final appearances (ICC World T20 2014 & ICC Champions Trophy 2017) but could not succeed in going all the way as the Men In Blue ran out of fire & brimstone during crunch games.