A distinguished career that produced more than 10,000 first-class runs; national titles in every format; and 24 Test caps for the BLACKCAPS has come to a close with the retirement of Jeet Raval, announced today by Northern Districts Cricket.
The left-handed opening batter has been one of the senior statesmen of the New Zealand Domestic game, and now hands over the mantle as its most experienced player ahead of the new 2026/27 season.
Richly respected by his peers in the game, Raval began his career with Auckland after emerging out of Avondale College — where he’d been in the school First XI alongside another handy cricketer, his lifelong friend Ajaz Patel.
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Raval made his first-class debut for the Auckland Aces when he was just 20, against a touring West Indies side in late 2008, and his NZC Domestic competition debut came in the same red-ball format against Otago, later that season.
It was the birth of a career that would see him represent Auckland, the Central Stags and finally Northern Districts across an im pressive 18 New Zealand seasons, as well as Yorkshire in England’s 2018 County Championship.
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Openers love big numbers, and Raval — ‘Jerry’ to his colleagues, produced quite the tally.
In first-class cricket alone he played 164 matches, including 73 for Auckland, 10 for the Stags, and 46 for Northern Districts after settling in Mount Maunganui.
When he reached his 10,000th first-class run, in December 2025 whilst captaining ND against Auckland in his adopted home town, he became only the 30th New Zealander to join that distinguished club.
Earlier in his career Raval had also ticked off the elite milestone of 1,000 first-class runs in a single season. He was a well of form in that 2015/16 summer and those consistent performances for New Zealand A and Auckland paved the way to his Test debut the following season.
Despite having shifted between Domestic teams during his career, Raval is still Auckland’s third most prolific first-class run-scorer of all time with 4,796 runs in for navy blue.
Raval’s overall top score of 256 came in his very first season, when he was opening the batting against the Stags in just his third first-class game.
It was a sign of things to come — he averaged above 40.00 in 13 of his 18 Domestic first-class seasons, and that pinnacle of 256 remains one of the seven highest scores of all time for Auckland.
Among his 10K first-class career runs are 24 centuries (including several doubles) and 50 half centuries, at a 37.66 average.
With 13 hundreds for Auckland, eight for Northern, one for Central, one for New Zealand A, and his Test best 132 against Bangladesh for the BLACKCAPS at Seddon Park in 2018/19, there are highlights in every team’s colours.
A century for Central | PHOTOSPORT
Recent summers also saw Raval add value for ND as a wicket-taking leg-spinner, the captain cannily realising he could cash in on the heavy footmarks left by teammates like Neil Wagner and Scott Kuggeleijn.
He wasn’t a regular with the ball over his career, yet in 2024/25 he contributed 14 wickets at just 11.14 as the ploy helped him lead his ND side to their drought-breaking championship win in the Plunket Shield.
That included another career best: his bag of 5/43 in a game in which he'd startled Auckland with match figures of 8/55. It was a far cry from his school days across town, when both Raval and Patel had bowled pace!
In Raval, elegance and deft strokeplay blended seamlessly with tenacity, intellect, a safe pair of hands in the slips, as well as a palpable, unabashed love and enthusiasm for the sport, a calm and dignified leadership style, and his unwavering commitment to fair, respectful play.
Several New Zealand records have Raval’s name inked across them.
His maiden one-day century — for the Central Stags in March 2013, was part of an extraordinary day at Seddon Park. He and Jamie How (who hit The Ford Trophy’s first ever double ton that day) put on 321 together for the first wicket.
It’s the New Zealand all-wickets partnership record in the one-day format.
Raval made headlines again in December 2024 when he dug in for so long at Bay Oval — to salvage a Plunket Shield draw for Northern Districts against the Stags, that he finished just seven minutes short of breaking the world record for the slowest first-class century (by minutes).
His marathon innings had spanned nine and a half hours.
Born in Ahmedabad, Raval's family emigrated to Auckland when he was in his teens to give him the opportunity to advance himself in cricket, but Raval had already started carving out his name for the Gujarat U15s and U17s in India.
He represented New Zealand Under 19 Men in 2006/07 in both red-ball and white-ball cricket, while at full international level his Test career would span four seasons, from 2016/17 to 2019/20.
Test cricket is the only format in which he played for the BLACKCAPS, but at Domestic level Raval produced the goods in whatever format or situation his team required, year after year.
While he wasn’t naturally an explosive T20 player, as a polished batter and tactician he earned national titles in the short format with the Aces (2015/16) and then as Northern Brave captain, back-to-back in 2021/22 and 2022/23.
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He was also a member of the Brave squad that won the 2025/26 title last summer; his last T20 appearance in a 76-game career (all teams) came in an tied game against the Volts at Bay Oval.
Plenty of clinking comes from Raval’s bag full of medals.
Along with the four national T20 trophies, he won the national first-class title (Plunket Shield) four times, starting with his maiden season for Auckland, and again with Auckland in 2015/16.
In between, he lifted it in his one-off summer with the Central Stags (2012/13), and finally with Northern Districts’s memorable 2024/25 drought-breaker.
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In The Ford Trophy, he first won the one-day title with Auckland who edged Canterbury in a thrilling 2010/11 grand final — that was his first season playing one-dayers on the Domestic scene.
Auckland again made the national final the following summer, but the Stags squeaked home by two wickets. Raval won two more Ford Trophy titles with Auckland in 2017/18 and 2019/20, before moving to Northern Districts the following season.
Raval’s last match arrived in last summer's final Plunket Shield round, at Seddon Park — one of the special places that had brought some of the most memorable moments of his career.
His impending retirement was an open secret among the New Zealand cricket fraternity, and he walked off the park for the last time to the respectful and sincere applause of all his teammates, opponents and officials there that day.
It was a twin farewell, aptly alongside his ND top order teammate Bharat Popli with whom he shares the ND first-wicket partnership record of 334; and fittingly his old schoolmate Ajaz Patel was there too, representing opponents the Stags.
For many bowlers on the New Zealand circuit, the forthcoming season will feel a little strange without durable, adaptable, ever-present Raval taking guard to open the batting against them in the maroon helmet.
NZC congratulates Raval on an exceptional innings, spanning almost two decades of service to the game.
JEET RAVAL — The Numbers
For the BLACKCAPS: 2008/09 to 2019/20
Tests: 24
Runs: 1,143
Centuries: 1
Fifties: 7
Average: 30.07
Wickets: 1
Catches: 21
Titles: World Test Championship 2019-21 cycle
For Auckland: 2008/09 to 2019/20, except 2012/13
First-class caps: 73
Runs: 4,796
Centuries: 13
Fifties: 19
Average: 38.36
Wickets: 16
Catches: 72
Titles: 2
One-Day caps: 46
Runs: 1,340
Centuries: 2
Fifties: 7
Average: 29.13
Wickets: 2
Catches: 27
Titles: 3
T20 caps: 29
Runs: 589
Fifties: 3
Average: 21.81
Catches: 10
Titles: 1
For the Central Stags: 2012/13
First-class caps: 10
Runs: 750
Centuries: 1
Fifties: 6
Average: 44.11
Wickets: 6
Catches: 17
Titles: 1
One-Day caps: 7
Runs: 115
Centuries: 1
Average: 29.42
Catches: 1
Partnership Records: First wicket and all wickets, 321 (with Jamie How)
T20 caps: 4
Runs: 87
Average: 21.75
Catches: 1
Titles: 3 (two as captain)
For Northern Districts/Brave: 2020/21 to 2025/26
First-class caps: 46
Runs: 3,147
Centuries: 8
Fifties: 16
Average: 39.83
Wickets: 21
Best bowling: 5/43
Catches: 72
Partnership Records: First wicket and all wickets, 334 (with Bharat Popli)
Titles: 1
One-Day caps: 43
Runs: 1,168
Centuries: 1
Fifties: 6
Average: 31.56
Wickets: 3
Catches: 35
Partnership Records: Seventh wicket, 129 (with Brett Hampton)
T20 caps: 43
Runs: 808
Fifties: 5
High Score: 70
Average: 21.26
Catches: 31
Titles: 3
Overall Career (New Zealand and Overseas)
First-class caps: 164
Runs: 10,432
Centuries: 24
Fifties: 50
Average: 37.66
Wickets: 44
One-Day caps: 96
Runs: 2,714
Centuries: 4
Fifties: 13
Average: 30.15
Wickets: 5
National Partnership Record: First wicket and all wickets, 321 (with Jamie How, Central Stags)
T20 caps: 76
Runs: 1,484
Fifties: 8
Average: 21.50
