Swapnil Patil, United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) middle-order batsman is eager to carry his good form into the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 and at the same time excited to play with Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane, with whom he has played cricket in Mumbai.

In the warm-up match, Patil top-scored when the side played against Australia. He scored 31 runs and faced the likes of Mitchell Johnson, Josh Hazlewood, Glenn Maxwell and Pat Cummins. He then scored 28 in their second warm-up match against Afghanistan and was involved in a 52-run partnership with UAE’s start batsman Khurram Khan.

“I am so happy to have scored those runs against Australia and top-scored for my team, though my knock was not enough to prevent a defeat. It was really a great experience to face the world-class Australian bowling attack, it gives me a lot of confidence to make more runs in the forthcoming matches,” Patil said to Gulf News.

Patil came to UAE when he was only 21 years old in 2006. He had turned out for Mumbai’s Under-19 and Under-22 teams previously. Shiva Pagarani, the owner of Yogi Group, picked him for his team more by accident than by choice. “I had gone to Mumbai to recruit some technicians for our Plant and Hire Division. Patil had come with a friend who was being recruited and he casually gave his cricket CV. Since I was recruiting a technician, I kept his CV in my file but when I and Ambey Parwatkar were planning for our cricket team’s new season, I found this CV after nearly two months. It took me a while to recall where I got this CV from but I flew him down after seeing his credentials. Now I realise that picking him was the most blessed moment for all at Yogi Group,” Pagarani said.

But it wasn’t easy for Patil, he had to wait for four years to qualify to play for the UAE and during this phase he kept scoring prolifically in domestic cricket. In his One-Day International (ODI) debut match against Scotland, Patil missed his century by just one run as his team chased 285 runs in the ICC World Cup qualifier final at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval ground in Lincoln, New Zealand last year.

For Patil, it is a dream-come-true as he had given up all hopes of playing at the highest level when he left Mumbai. “I am thrilled that I will be playing against Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma with whom I used to play in Mumbai. Never thought that one day I will play in a World Cup with them,” said Patil, who is also a wicketkeeper.

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“It is vital that the wicketkeeper has to be the fittest person in the team as most victories depend on converting the slim chances into catches,” said Patil, who also rose in his job from Senior Store In-charge to Sales Executive in the Lifting Division called Yo-Lift. Time and again, he has lifted the UAE team to many a memorable victory.