The last time the Black Caps left-arm spinner put on the spikes and rolled his arm over at the venue, he snapped up 14 wickets in the match, including 10 in the first innings.
He is only the third player in the history of test cricket to take all 10 wickets in an innings.
Indian great Anil Kumble managed the feat against Pakistan in Delhi in 1999, and England’s Jim Laker snaffled all 10 against Australia in Manchester in 1956.
"Yeah, it’s certainly emotional," Patel responded when asked what it was like to be back following his huge haul in 2021.
The Black Caps have an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-test series against India. It is their first test series win in India and they can make more history by sweeping their hosts.
The final game in the series gets under way at 5pm (NZ time) and Patel is looking forward to returning to the site where he bowled so well.
"Being back in Mumbai is always quite special and it's a place I call home as well," he said.
"To be honest, after my 10-for I wasn't sure whether I'd get another opportunity to play out here again throughout my career."
Patel, who was born in Mumbai, has not been in prime form in
the series.
He took two for 100 in Bengaluru, and none for 54 and two for 43 in the second test.
Fellow left-armer Mitchell Santner hogged the limelight in the second test with his haul of 13 for 157 in the match.
"We actually have a lot of communication [out on the field]. I guess we talk about how the wicket's responding — what certain deliveries are working and what's turning more and what the right pace is for the surface and stuff like that.
"But at the same time, I think while we are left-arm spinners, I think we both offer different kind of skill sets, so we try and operate based on our strengths."
Clinching an historic test series win in India has left the camp in an upbeat mood but there is still work to do.
"To be able to do that [win the series] has been very, very special and it's certainly taken a whole team effort to be able to do that.
"We've played some very, very good cricket over the last couple of weeks.
"I guess moving forward into this game, it's really important that we start again and really forget about what's gone behind us and kind of put that to bed, so that we can focus on the task in front of us."
Patel expects the wicket will offer more pace and bounce and will eventually turn.
"Traditionally, the Indian batters have, I guess, done well in turning surfaces. Obviously, they haven't had maybe as much success as they would have liked in this series so far.
"But they're certainly an opposition that are very, very skilled and not the easiest to come up against.
"I guess, for us, as a spin group especially, it's about being able to control what we can control and making sure that we can apply pressure for long periods of time and making sure that we're delivering the best balls on a given surface."
Third test
Mumbai, 5pm today
New Zealand: Tom Latham (captain), Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Ajaz Patel, Will O’Rourke, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Jacob Duffy, Mark Chapman.
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, KL Rahul, Harshit Rana, Dhruv Jurel, Mohammed Siraj.
