Date of birth – 30 November 1984 Leicester
Nottinghamshire First-Class Debut – 3 July 2002 v West Indies A (Trent Bridge)
Nottinghamshire’s longest-serving all-rounder will be hoping to celebrate his benefit season with the types of performances that have typified his career since his first team debut in 2002.
Samit Patel came through the county’s junior ranks to become a permanent fixture in the Notts side in all three domestic formats. The right-handed batsman has registered over 10,000 runs and taken almost 300 wickets in first-class cricket but he brings more than just plain statistics to the Nottinghamshire squad.
Patel has proven to be a man for the big stage and the big occasion, frequently delivering a timely ton or decisive haul of wickets when needed with the red ball.
In white ball cricket, he has few equals. It’s often been said in the Nottinghamshire dressing room that if the television cameras are around then Patel will step up and clinch the man-of-the-match award.
He did just that in the 2013 Yorkshire Bank Final at Lord’s. Despite being dismissed for just ten, he responded to being the sixth bowler used by immediately dismissing Glamorgan’s big trio of Cooke, Allenby and Goodwin to tilt the contest decisively with his slow left arm spin.
The Outlaws’ ‘Mr T20’ – no-one has played as many games, scored as many runs or taken as many wickets in that format for the county.
A prodigious talent, his supporters believe he could have done even more had he been given longer with England, having made just six Test appearances, to go with his 36 ODIs and 18 T20 internationals.