Kushal Patel has been selected to train with the Middlesex County Cricket Club Academy. Kushal, who is in Year 12, has already played for the county’s Second XI, U17 and U15 sides.
He has been the School’s top scorer for the last two seasons and has been playing for QE’s First XI since he was in Year 9 – a rare achievement. Kushal started playing with Middlesex as an U10. At 16, he is at the very bottom of the age range at which the county selects Academy players.
He has already enjoyed some first-class coaching from former Middlesex, Surrey and England batsman Mark Ramprakash (pictured with Kushal below), who is one of only 25 players in the history of the sport to have scored 100 first-class centuries, and who was batting coach for the England Lions in India in 2012.
“The Academy only select six or seven young players each season, so Kushal’s selection is a great achievement,” said School PE teacher Jonathan Morgan. “He has been one of our stand-out players for a couple of years and the coaching he will receive as part of this élite group will only improve his game.”
Kushal will now train four times a week at the county’s Finchley site over the winter, before taking part in competitive matches against the other counties’ Second XI sides next summer.
He is currently studying A-level Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Geography and Economics & Business and is hoping in the future to combine cricket at the highest-possible level with university studies.
Other current members of the Academy include 18-year-old Sebastian Feszczur-Hatchett, a QE old boy who is a left-arm seam bowler.