Ok..so now everybody will say Dada is a genius, his ploy of opening with Parthiv worked spectacularly. But thats cricket, thats why captaincy is such a important job, you take risks..sometimes they come off , sometimes they dont. When they come off, you are god, when they dont you are pillioried by every armchair expert in India, and they number 500 million..leave or add a few.

On the topic of Wicketkeeper Batsmen, its never a good idea of asking wicketkeepers to open, its too physically/mentally taxing..both are specialist jobs and should be handled as such. One -off cases are fine for tactical/strategic purposes.
Over the history of cricket there have been quite a few batsmen-wk or the other way around who excelled in both depts, on a temporary or permamnet basis. The names which readily come to mind are..
Clyde Walcott kept wickets for 15 test..he was the dream combination, as his career batting avg was in the high 50s. But he was too tall (6ft 2") to keep doin the job consistently..he developed some back problems and had to concentrate solely on batting. Even Gavaskar's idol, Rohan Kanhai..kept wickets in initial part of his career, probably because that was the only way he could find a place in a team of stalwarts. In the 60s & 70s, there were Alan Knott & Farokh Engineer who battled for the title of best wicketkeeper batsmen, both were superb keeprs who could bat well enough to merit a place on their batting skills alone. In fact when a "best of the world" side went to England in early 70's Engineer was selected as the wk in that team.
As a aside the imp members of that team, which comprehensively beat england in the ' test' series were: Barry Richards,Engineer(wk),Gary Sobers (captain),Graeme Pollock ,Ian Chappell, Eddie barlow, graham mckenzie, bedi, mike proctor, trevor goddard.
In the all conquering team under Clive LLyod, Jeff Dujon was a important player, keeping to the pace attack and holding the tail together. Infact when the Windies were on their 14 test unbeaten streak, Dujon averaged around 50 odd. Then there was Alec Stewart in the 1990s, though his batting dipped appreciably when he was asked to keep also. He avgd 33 when he was a keeper, and 46 when he was releived of the keeper duties. Thats brings us to Adam Gilchrist, who is simply a force of nature, a freak maybe. A great wicketkeepr who averages 60 plus in tests and in the mid thirties while opening in ODI's. He is a sort of a player who appear only once in a 100 years..or maybe only once. One of the key factors which makes the current Aussie team formidable. His impact on the game is such , that he has changed the whole way people think about the role of the wicketkeeper, nowdays every team expects that the wk would also be a bat who avgs 40+. Such players are rare indeed.
Andy Flower, Kumar Sangakkara were other players who could hold a place in their teams on strength of batting alone. Coming to think of it, never in history of the game have there been so many wicketkeepers who could bat so well.
Coming back to Patel, I think he has the potential to be a very good midle order batsman for India. Even at 19 his nascent batting skills are evident, and with backing of kirmani, more and more importantly his team-mates, he will improve his keeping skills also. Unhesitatingly i would rate him as a man who will end up playing 100+test matches for India (of course injuries permitting), and he may just end up as India's greatest batsman-wk ever. Amen.