New Zealand opener who played Test cricket from 2016 to 2020, 38-year-old Jeet Raval has announced his retirement from professional cricket effective immediately. Raval played his last competitive game in March 2026. Raval is one of the stalwarts of New Zealand domestic cricket.
"It's with a great honour and a privilege that I made this decision," Raval told Northern Districts Cricket Association.
"I feel at peace and very content. The childhood dream [was] obviously to play for Black Caps and I look back with pride. It wasn't just my dream, [but] also my father's dream as well. We saw an opportunity and he moved the family here so I could have an opportunity to live my dream."
Impactful debut, Test career went downhill after maiden ton
Raval had made his Test cricket debut against Pakistan in Christchurch. He scored a half-century in his debut innings and followed it up with an unbeaten 36 in the successful run chase. He made an impact with two gritty knocks in a low-scoring encounter.
Raval hovered around the century-mark but it took him nearly two and a half years to score his maiden Test ton. He was dismissed thrice in 80s. His maiden Test ton, a 132-run knock came against Bangladesh. But, his Test cricket went downhill after that. He struggled against Sri Lanka, England in home Test series that year. Eventually, failure to score a half-century in 11 Test innings led to him getting dropped from the squad. His last Test appearance was against Australia in Perth in January 2020.
While he did not go on to be the part of the squad which won the inaugural ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2021 final, he did play a few games enroute to the final.
When Raval played as Parthiv's opening partner
Born in Gujarat, Raval used to open with India's former wicketkeeper-batter Parthiv Patel in his school days in Ahmedabad. He moved to New Zealand in his teen years. Initially, he played in the middle order for Auckland. Eventually, he shifted to the opener role and excelled it in the domestic circuit. He also represented New Zealand’s Under-19 team.
Raval’s stunning first-class numbers
Raval retired with 10,432 runs to his name in first-class cricket from 164 games at an average of 37.66. He scored 24 tons and 50 half-centuries in his first-class career. His high score is 256.
The southpaw is the 30th New Zealand batter to score 10,000 or more runs in first-class cricket. He retires as a legend of Plunket Shield, New Zealand's domestic four-day red-ball format. He has scored 8,662 runs in his Plunket Shield career, the fourth-highest in the tournament's career, only behind Michael Papps (11,463 runs), Matthew Sinclair (8,842) and Peter Fulton (8,719 runs).
In the twilight years of his career, Raval led Northern Districts to the Plunket Shield title in 2024-25 season. This was their first title win in over a decade.
His last game for Northern Districts was against Central Districts where he registered scores of 11 and nine. His last ton came against Auckland in November 2025. His last fifty came in the penultimate game of his career against Otago in March 2026.
"From an ND perspective, Jeet has been the ultimate senior pro and leader since joining us," the team's general manager of cricket Ian Sandbrook said in a statement.
"His runs (and wickets!) and calm leadership will be missed. More than anything, though, Jeet is a great man. Respected, loyal, and an outstanding team-mate that has always given his best."
Jeet was a reliable catcher in the slip cordon as well. He retires with 196 catches in first-class cricket. in his short Test career, he claimed 21 catches.
He was handy with the ball as leg-spinner. He claimed 44 wickets from bowling opportunities in 92 innings at an average of 37.81. He claimed eight wickets in a match late into his career including a fifer. Against Auckland last year, he took three wickets from just five overs in the first innings. Then, he bagged a five-wicket haul in 18.1 overs in the first innings. He bowled as many as six maiden overs in the innings.
Raval's numbers in white-ball cricket
He couldn't establish himself as a T20 cricketer. From 76 games, he scored 1,484 runs in 73 innings at an average of 21.50 and strike rate of 121.44. He scored eight half-centuries in his T20 career. But, he But, he was the captain of Northern Districts side that won the Super Smash title 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons. Northern Districts are the reigning champions as well. But, Raval played just one game for them this season where he scored 23 runs against Otago.
In 96 List A (One-Day) games, he batted 94 times and scored 2,714 runs averaging just over 30 and strike rate nearly 80. He scored four List A tons and 13 half-centuries. He never got to make his debut for New Zealand in white-ball cricket. He did not win a single edition of Ford Trophy (New Zealand’s domestic One-Day tournament. Northern Districts are yet to win a Ford Trophy title.
What’s next for Raval after retirement?
Raval has had a coaching gig already. He was an assistant coach to Tarun Nethula for the Samoa team. But, he has another career to fall back to. He can continue as a full-time chartered account, a job he has been doing at an auditing firm.
However, New Zealand have recently appointed the successor of their long-serving batting coach BJ Watling. The former wicketkeeper-batter will leave his role as Northern Districts as head coach. No official announcement has been made yet but Raval could be in reckoning for the job in the future considering the respect he commands in the dressing room as their legendary player. Watling is due to join the New Zealand dressing room just before the two-Test series against India at home in order to begin the transition. Watling’s tenure as batting coach will officially begin in the four-Test series against Australia later this year.