Derbyshire need to start 'punching' in T20 Blast - Patel

Two-time T20 Blast winner Patel moved to Derbyshire from Nottinghamshire in October 2023

White-ball captain Samit Patel says Derbyshire want to land early blows in the T20 Blast rather than get "punched" themselves.

The Falcons go into the shortest format of the game after enjoying an unbeaten start to the County Championship season, with two wins and five draws from their opening seven matches.

They sit second in he table, behind Leicestershire, who they face on Friday in the first match of the T20 tournament.

Former England international Patel says there is a good feeling amongst the squad that he wants to utilise to start well in the competition.

"There's boys bouncing around, which is great to see," he told BBC East Midlands Today.

"The boys are playing really well and we're trying to snowball-effect it and play some good cricket in the white ball"

Patel arrived at the County Ground in 2024 after a 22-year spell at Nottinghamshire. He scored 21,000 runs for them across all formats and took more than 700 wickets.

In his first season at Derbyshire, the Falcons failed to reach the knockout stage of the Blast, losing seven of their 14 group games.

This season, Patel's emphasised the importance of a good start in the competition and not to be bullied by the opposition early on.

"We don't want to get punched in the face, we want to punch the opposition in the face," he said.

"It's not a Derby thing to start fast, as we are normally reactive rather than proactive.

"We don't want to put pressure on the back-end results. We want to start the season well and start off at the top end of the table rather than the bottom."

'Fire still burning'

Derbyshire have reached the top four of the group just once in the past five tournaments, the last time coming in 2022.

But two-time tournament winner Patel says that the side now has "jigsaw pieces in place".

He added: "We're evolving as a squad, we've got some good overseas players including (Caleb) Jewell, who brings a winning mentality after winning the Big Bash in Australia.

"We've also signed a mystery spinner in (Allah Mohammad) Ghazanfar who I'm really excited to see"

The 40-year old has enjoyed an illustrious career across all formats of English cricket and insists his passion for the game has never wavered.

"This is my 24th year of playing professional cricket and I've played every year of the Blast so far," he said.

"I'm just as excited from the first one I played to now. Once the fire stops burning then I'll stop playing."