Munaf Patel is an Indian Cricketer who is a right arm medium fast bowler and right handed batsman. His full name is Munaf Musa Patel and he was born on 12th July, 1983, in a small town named Ikhar, in Gujarat. In early days of his career, Munaf Patel has played for the West Zone in Duleep Trophy and for Gujarat, Maharastra and Mumbai cricket team, though he started playing cricket for Matadar Criket Club, since 1992. He has also played in the Indian Premier League. Initially, he played with Rajasthan Royals for 3 seasons, but recently joined the Mumbai Indians.

Early Career of Munaf Patel
Munaf Patel played for the Gujarat team in first class cricket before he was selected for MRF pace foundation in Chennai. There, he influenced the Australian captain Steve Waugh and director Dennis Lili. Then he was backed by Sachin Tendulkar and went to play for Mumbai cricket team. During 2004, Munaf was injured and was sent to Australian Institute of Sport for bio-mechanical analysis on his bowling action, to improve his dexterity. He was highly criticized for his injury by the coach Sandip Patil, who had the notion that Munaf had a mental blockage while dealing with injuries.

After getting 10 wickets against England for the board president XI in 2005, Munaf Patel was selected in the Indian test squad for second test against England in Punjab Cricket Association Ground, Mohali where he played his first test match. In his debut match he took 7 wickets for 97 runs including 4/25 in second innings and influenced by delivering swing ball in both direction. In the Test series against West Indies in 2005-2006, Munaf proved himself the fastest bowler in India, maintaining an average speed of 87mph.

In the second match against in DLF cup, Munaf Patel picked up 3 wickets for 54 runs. Again in the first match of 2006, ICC Champions Trophy against England, he helped India win the game, claiming 3 wickets in only18 runs and was awarded as the Man of the Match. Munaf Patel made his ODI debut against England at Margao, on April 3rd, 2006. He has played 65 ODI matches and scored a total of 74 runs. His highest score in ODI is 15 with an average of 6.72. In bowling, Munaf has taken 84 wickets, and gave 2425 runs out of 2988 balls.

He was a part of 2007 ICC World Cup team which failed tremendously in the group stage. He was a part of the Bangladesh tour following the World Cup 200 disaster and also toured with the team to England, where played in two games. He couldn`t continue for long in England and took 4 wickets before he was ruled out of the series due to injury. Subsequently he was ruled out of the team due to injury issues, but was later recalled due to the injury of Rudra Pratap Singh and Santhakumaran Sreesanth For the opening match of Sri Lanka tour in 2009, Munaf was selected to the team. He bowled five overs and went wicketless, and gave away 32 runs. He then picked up a groin injury before the second match and was replaced in the squad by Lakshmipathy Balaji.

Batting and Fielding Averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	13	14	6	60	15*	7.50	142	42.25	0	0	8	1	6	0
ODIs	70	27	16	74	15	6.72	112	66.07	0	0	7	1	11	0
T20Is	3	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
First-class	54	62	21	617	78	15.04	891	69.24	0	1			13	0
List A	117	44	22	166	28	7.54			0	0			27	0
Twenty20	50	11	5	37		6.16	34	108.82	0	0	5	0	10	0

Bowling Averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	13	25	2658	1349	35	4/25	7/97	38.54	3.04	75.9	1	0	0
ODIs	70	67	3154	2603	86	4/29	4/29	30.26	4.95	36.6	3	0	0
T20Is	3	3	60	86	4	2/25	2/25	21.50	8.60	15.0	0	0	0
First-class	54		9839	4661	192	6/50		24.27	2.84	51.2	12	7	1
List A	117		5379	4237	145	4/21	4/21	29.22	4.72	37.0	4	0	0
Twenty20	50	50	1045	1266	60	5/21	5/21	21.10	7.26	17.4	0	1	0

Munaf Patel performed well and played a significant role in ICC World Cup 2011. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had immense faith in Munaf and as a bowler he delivered the goods, especially in the India Pakistan Semi-Final Match, held at Punjab Cricket Association Ground, Mohali and also played in the Final Match of the World Cup 2011.

He is a part of Mumbai Indians setup after three seasons with Rajasthan Royals. His last ODI match was played against West Indies, held at North Sound, on June 11, 2011.