Born on 18 August, 1956 at Bombay.
Hard hitting middle order batsman and right arm medium pace bowler. Successful coach at the national and international level.
Sandeep Patil was a batsman who liked to hit on the up and was great to watch when in full flow. He made his test debut against Pakistan in the fifth test at Madras in 1979-80 and his one-day international debut against Australia at Melbourne in 1980-81. Playing 29 test matches, he scored 1,588 runs at an average of 36.93 with four hundreds and a highest score of 174 against Australia at Adelaide. He also captured nine wickets with his off-cutters. In 45 one-day internationals he scored 1,005 runs at an average of 24.51 and captured 15 wickets at an average of 39.26.
Sandeep Patil was a natural crowd puller with his big and exquisitely timed shots. After being hit on the head by Lenny Pascoe, in Australia, in his first series, he came back to score a big hundred in the next test. Derided by many for not being a 'fighter', he showed the stuff he is really made of when he scored 24 runs off a Willis over in England in 1982. Batting reasonably well on the 1982-83 tour of Pakistan, he dropped out of the West Indies tour of 1983, citing personal reasons. Though he was one of the World Cup '83 heroes, Patil did not exactly live up to his reputation in the series that followed against the West Indies and Pakistan and was dropped from the Indian side after the Delhi test against the touring Englishmen in 1984-85. He played some one-day games on the 1986 tour of England, which was to be his last series for India.
Patil has since captained and coached Madhya Pradesh to some eye-opening wins in the Ranji Trophy and has also coached the India 'A'and the senior Indian teams. He coached the Kenyans and brought them to the semifinals of the 2003 World Cup played in South Africa.
He has acted in a Bollywood film, authored a book - his autobiography titled 'Sandy Storm' and has edited a Marathi Cricket magazine.
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