IPL 2020: Rahul Tewatia – Rise after the struggle
Rahul Tewatia – the name will be etched in the memory of all the cricket fans who witnessed the nail-biting encounter between Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab on September 27, Sunday in the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League. Rahul played one of the best cameos in the history of the league by scoring 53 off 31 and helped his team Royals chase down a record 224 against Kings.
Tewatia was initially struggling to connect the ball and was being considered as the villain for RR as he was at the score of 17 off 23 at the end of 17th over. However, the 27-year-old suddenly changed the course of the game by smashing five blistering sixes in the 18th over bowled by Sheldon Cottrell. This equalled the record for the most number of sixes hit in one over in the history of the IPL. A record that was earlier held solely by Chris Gayle. Tewatia couldn’t finish off the match as he was sent back to the pavilion by Shami in the 19th over but his quickfire knock helped Rajasthan in registering a victory by 4 wickets.
Domestic performances
The Haryana-born has decent domestic records under his kitty and was waiting for his moment in the sun. The all-rounder made his Ranji debut for Haryana against Karnataka on 6th December 2013 at the Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium.
As per his stats, the cricketer has a relatively below par first-class career as he has scored mere 190 runs and has taken 17 wickets in 7 matches played. However, Tewatia is backed by phenomenal records in the 50-over format. He has scored 484 runs at an average of 37 and a strike rate of 91 in 21 games. He has also picked up 27 wickets at an average of 23 and a strike-rate of 19.
With 691 runs in 40 innings at a strike rate of 155 and average of 27.64, Rahul also has impressive numbers in the domestic T20 Leagues. He has 33 wickets at an economy rate of 7.34.
The struggle in IPL
Rahul Tewatia’s IPL journey commenced in 2014 with Rajasthan Royals where he shone with the ball in a match against Kings XI Punjab. However, the cricketer was then traded to Punjab for 2017 edition where he failed to make an impact after the first innings. In his first game for KXIP, he was awarded the Man of the Match for bowling a spell of 2/18 and scoring 15 runs from 8 balls.
Things changed for Tewatia in the 2018 edition as he emerged as a surprise package for Delhi Capitals who had picked him for a whopping price of 3 crores. However, he played only five matches picking up two wickets. The all-rounder was later again traded to the Rajasthan Royals ahead of this season. In his IPL journey of 7 years, Tewatia has picked 17 wickets in 22 matches at an economy of 7.54 while he has also amassed 174 runs in 14 innings at a strike rate of 135.94.
Apart from the bat, the 27-year-old has made headlines for his bowling performances as well. In Rajasthan’s first match of the 2020 campaign against Chennai Super Kings, Rahul took as many as three wickets of star players like Shane Watson, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sam Curran. With his performances with both bat and ball, he could be a force to reckon with this season.
