Who is Urvil Patel? 5 interesting facts about Gujarat wicket-keeper who scored the fastest T20 ton by an Indian

Urvil Patel has become the talk of the town after smashing a hundred off just 28 deliveries in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy tournament. The Gujarat wicket-keeper reached triple figures in 28 balls against Tripura in Indore.

Tripura batted first and set a 156-run target for Gujarat. In response, Gujarat reached 156/2 in just 10.2 overs. Opening the batting for Gujarat, Urvil remained unbeaten on 113 runs from 35 balls, smacking seven fours and 12 sixes.

With this knock, Urvil Patel now owns the record for the fastest century by an Indian in T20 cricket history. Previously, Rishabh Pant held this record for his 32-ball century for Delhi against Himachal Pradesh in 2018.

Here's a list of five interesting things to know about Patel.

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#1 Urvil Patel was a member of Gujarat Titans team in IPL 2023

While Patel remained unsold at the mega auction last week in Saudi Arabia, he was a member of the Gujarat Titans (GT) team in IPL 2023. In fact, the team would use him as a local face for the media events and fan meet and greets as well so that they could build a better connection with the franchise.

However, Patel never played a match for GT. He got released the following year and has not returned to the IPL after that.

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#2 Urvil Patel was born in Palanpur

Patel hails from Palanpur city of Gujarat. He initially represented Baroda at the U-14, U-16 and U-19 levels and even played for Baroda at the senior level before switching to the Gujarat team in domestic cricket.

So far, Patel has played 44 T20 matches, scoring 988 runs at a strike rate of 164.11. Considering that the Indian wicketkeepers were in heavy demand at the auction, it is surprising to note that Patel will not be a part of IPL 2025.

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#3 Urvil Patel also smashed the second-fastest 100 by an Indian in 50-over cricket

Patel created a new record for the fastest century by an Indian in T20s today, but exactly one year ago, he bagged the second position on the list of Indians with the quickest 100 in the 50-over format.

He achieved the feat against Arunachal Pradesh in a Vijay Hazare Trophy match hosted by Chandigarh. Opening the innings for Gujarat, Patel smacked an unbeaten 41-ball 100*, helping his team chase down a 160-run target in just 13 overs.

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#4 Urvil Patel started playing cricket at the age of 6

As mentioned earlier, Patel has played U-14, U-16 and U-19 cricket for the Baroda team. It shows that his cricketing journey started at a young age. In an interview with BBC News Gujarati, Patel said that he started playing cricket at the age of six years only.

It means that Patel has been playing cricket for 20 years now. It will be interesting to see if he makes it to the Indian team one day.

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#5 Urvil Patel is fulfilling his father's dream of playing professional cricket

In the same interview with BBC News Gujarati, the broadcaster said that Urvil started playing cricket to fulfill his father's dream of playing the sport at a professional level.

From a very young age, Urvil would practice for around six hours every day to perfect his cricketing skills. His hard work has paid off as he has entered the record books now.