Patel was a left-handed batsman. Patel made his debut for Staffordshire in the 1994 Minor Counties Championship against Suffolk. Patel played Minor counties cricket for Staffordshire from 1994 to 1996, which included 11 Minor Counties Championship matches and a single MCCA Knockout Trophy match.
In 1995, he made his List A debut against Kent in the National Westminster Trophy.
In this match, he scored a single run before being run out. He played a further List A match against Derbyshire in the 1996 National Westminster Trophy, a match in which he was dismissed for a duck by Philosophy DeFreitas.