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Munaf Patel India (Ind)
Batting style	Right hand bat
Bowling type	Right arm medium fast
	Tests	ODIs
Matches	7	17
Runs scored	32	6
Batting average	5.33	3.00
100s/50s	-/-	-/-
Top score	13	15*
Balls bowled	1500	814
Wickets	25	22
Bowling average	29.00	28.68
5 wickets in innings	-	-
10 wickets in match	-	n/a
Best bowling	4/25	4/49
Catches/stumpings	4/-	1/-
As of February 14, 2007 Source: Cricinfo.com

Munaf Musa Patel pronunciation (help·info) (born July 12, 1983, Ikhar, Gujarat, India) is an Indian Test cricketer who has also played for the West Zone in the Duleep Trophy and Gujarat, Mumbai cricket team and Maharashtra cricket team.

Born to a family which was opposed to cricket, Patel first gained prominence in 2003 at the age of 20 before he had even played first class cricket for Gujarat, when he was invited to the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai by the Indian chairman of selectors Kiran More. There he attracted the attention of visiting Australian captain Steve Waugh, and the director Dennis Lillee, a former Australian fast bowler with his raw pace. However, with the backing of Sachin Tendulkar, he was captured by Mumbai in a transfer deal, in late 2003, without ever representing his native Gujarat.

In 2004, he struggled with injuries, and was criticized by India A coach Sandeep Patil, who believed that he had a mental problem dealing with his injuries. He was also sent to Australian Institute of Sport for bio-mechanical analysis on his bowling action, to improve its efficiency. In August 2005, he transferred to Maharashtra, and after taking 10 wickets against England in a tour match for the Board President's XI, he was rewarded with his selection in the Indian Test Squad for the 2nd Test against England in Mohali, when he made his Test debut.

Patel recorded the figures of 7/97 on debut, including an impressive 4/25 in the second innings and demonstrated an ability to swing the ball in both directions.

In the 2005-2006 Test Series against West Indies, Munaf proved he was arguably the fastest bowler in India, bowling regularly at speeds of over 87 mph and has produced balls at a pace over the 90 mph mark. However, more impressive than his ability to bowl at a very quick pace has been his control, a skill lacking in recent Indian fast bowlers. In the West Indies, however, Munaf suffered the ignominy of being hit for 6 fours in an over by Ramnaresh Sarwan. Patel fell short of the record of conceding the most runs off an over by 3 runs.

In the second match of the DLF Cup in Malaysia, Munaf came up with impressive figures of 3/54 against Australia, picking up the wickets of Phil Jacques, Michael Clarke and Stuart Clark. In the final game of the same tournament, he dismissed Australian captain Ricky Ponting, regarded as the best batsman in cricket at the moment, for just 4, on the way to 1/32 off 9 overs.

In the first match of the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy against England, Munaf Patel again produced impressive figures of 3/18 - winning the match for India and gaining the man of the match award.

• A Cricinfo column on Munaf Patel
• BBC on Munaf Patel
• ^[1] Player Profile for Munaf Patel from Cricinfo

	India squad - 2007 Cricket World Cup
1 Dravid (c) | 2 Sehwag | 3 Tendulkar | 4 Ganguly | 5 Yuvraj | 6 Uthappa | 7 Dhoni | 8 Karthik | 9 Kumble | 10 Harbhajan | 11 Pathan | 12 Patel | 13 Zaheer | 14 Sreesanth | 15 Agarkar | Coach: Chappell

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