Not a wrestler or a hockey player, Tewatia became a cricketer as he always wanted.
Krishan Pal, Rahul Tewatia’s father, was doing his daily chore of fetching milk for his family at dawn in Sihi. However, it was not a normal day, given that his son, the night before in Sharjah, had gone from villain to hero in the span of five balls.
Having scored just 8 on 19 balls as the Rajasthan Royals chased a massive 224 total, he significantly decreased innings. However, he came back to smash five sixes in a Sheldon Cottrell to lead the Rajasthan Royals to an unforgettable victory over Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League.
In a small town like Sihi, news, big or small, spreads like wildfire, and it was no surprise that her father was inundated with blessings and wishes from the townspeople for their local boy who had made them proud.
“We feel great,” says her father, Krishan Pal. Cricbuzz. “We knew that what he was playing initially was not his natural game. What he showed later is what his natural game is. Usually he is never under pressure, but he did it yesterday. We knew that his natural game is different and that would make it to the top. We were all watching together. His mother and dadi (grandmother) are also very happy. Yesterday she sought her blessings after the game. “
Sihi is a village in the Faridabad district of Haryana state, where the Tewatias come from. Rahul’s grandfather was a farmer, who also gave himself up to fight from time to time. When Rahul was born, his grandfather hoped that his grandson would follow his example and become a ‘pehalwan‘while his uncle, Dharamveer Tewatia, who was a hockey player, had other plans for his nephew. But Rahul is as stubborn as he comes even from that young age, and once his interest in cricket started to grow, it became his ultimate goal.
When Rahul was eight years old, Krishan Pal took him to the Vijay Yadav Cricket Academy in Faridabad, where he was first introduced to former Indian goalkeeper Vijay Yadav, his coach ever since. Yadav went on to coach the U-19 and the U-22 of Haryana, where finally Tewatia was also under his tutelage. Tewatia was not the hardest worker as a child, but it was the constant pushing from his father and uncle that kept him from straying.
“They would not let him go anywhere, they would take him to the ground and say: lord isko khilwao … hamari gaon ke izzat ka sawal hai (Lord, let him play. It’s about respect for our people). He was a good leg player, a very good hitter and a good outfielder, “says his coach.” The only problem sometimes was his physical condition. Sometimes he used to get lazy and lose touch with his own physical form. That was the concern. It always reminded him that your physical condition is the only thing that will take you elsewhere. If you don’t care about your physical condition, you won’t go anywhere. He did very well for the last few years and after being selected for the IPL, they also have some schedules and routines that they must follow and he has done very well since then. “
Tewatia started out as a leg-turning bowler and gradually honed her hitting skills, facing the reality of never making it to Haryana Ranji’s team due to the presence of two first-class legs in Yuzvendra Chahal and Amit Mishra, who represented to India in various capacities. Realizing early that his hitting was what was going to make or break his career and subsequent opportunities, he paid attention to his coach’s direction.
“If you ask me, I always believed that this was what I should always do,” Yadav said. “Whenever I came to practice, I used to tell him that your hitting is the only thing that will cheer you up because, you can imagine when you play for Haryana, there are two great legs. You won’t get a chance on the Ranji Trophy team, but in the shorter formats when are not available, you will have a chance. That means your hitting is the only criterion that will help you advance. And when you get the chance, the IPL is the best platform because this is the only place if you act even in one or two games. They notice. This is how long I was waiting for him and he would have been waiting for the same thing. Now it will be noticed everywhere and maybe get a shot at India A or maybe even the World Cup if they are considering a player I think that his name may come up if he keeps playing like this.
Sanju Samson, frustrated, denied him the blow and Tewatia turned him around like no one thought he could.
Tewatia was first seen by Rahul Dravid, who was then the coach of the Rajasthan Royals. Tewatia was in the Karnataka State Cricket Association for an under-22 game and had scored an impressive 90 for Haryana, which did not go unnoticed by Dravid. Tewatia was bought by the Royals prior to the 2014 season and moved to Kings XI Punjab in 2017. The following year, Delhi Capitals sought him out before being traded to the Royals as part of their deal in exchange for Ajinkya Rahane prior to this season. in progress. .
“Rahul Dravid called me after that and said, ‘Vijay, just tell Tewatia I’ll take him to the Rajasthan Royals. Don’t let him go anywhere.’ That was the moment he saw him as a prospect. As a young man You can look to the future that in the next few years he will do better. He was selected, but after that Rahul left and in your years of construction, you also have to prove it. So it was good for him that he went to Kings XI and he played 2-3 matches and he did well and then he was selected for Delhi Capitals and it was all about money and whatever the system is and he keeps going. So … when the Rajasthan Royals brought him back they changed him and he already showed that he was in demand and people had started to believe in him. He showed them that his decision was not wrong. “
Much of Tewatia’s character could be summed up in his 31-ball stay in the middle in Sharjah. A slow start, with the required running speed increasing at the rate of blood pressure at that point, caused the Twitterverse to jump to the extremes of cricket views. Tewatia himself said at the end of the game that those were “the worst 20 balls” he has ever played. But his first six were the game changer, after which, he got six more to validate his rise in the order.
“In any field of life, you must be a dheet person (stubborn). People tell you something, it goes against you, they don’t give you a chance, but you must believe that yes, I’m going to do it, whether you give me a chance or not. And this is how he has played cricket all his life. For Haryana when Chahal was playing and he was the main leg sinner and Amit Mishra was there, even then he never believed that he couldn’t play. He always said ‘Agar mujhe chance milega toh main karke dikahoonga ‘ (If I get the chance, I’ll give it a try.) So that kind of attitude is very important, “says Yadav.
The Tewatias, who own acres of land living in Sector 8, are the ones who get a lot of attention from the village, not only because Rahul earned the laurels in his vocation, but also because his uncle was involved in politics. The 27-year-old, however, is not affected by these factors and dedicates his entire life to cricket. In seven first-class games, he has 190 races and 17 wickets. But it is the T20 where he has shone with 691 runs in 50 games, with 33 wickets. In the IPL, he has played 22 games for 174 races and 17 wickets.
“Last year he got a job in the income tax department, so it’s good that he settled down in that regard,” says Yadav. “He must be relieved and his parents are happy. Otherwise, you know when I was a coach at ONGC in 2008, that time he was playing Under-19, I took him there too with me under my stipend to play for ONGC.” This is how it got into all these formats from there. He doesn’t know anything else. Now from the IPL and the exposure, he knows other things … like traveling and going on vacation now. But so far, what I’ve already seen him about, he’s not the boastful type of guy. Can’t live without cricket. You can’t believe it, he can’t do anything else. “
In a practice game, despite a fracture, he once made it a century ago, recalls striker Raj Kumar, who watched him hit that day and was impressed with his dedication. It’s a reflection of his temperament and his self-confidence, something quite evident even after the magnitude of his achievement in that record-breaking career-chase. Even after Rajasthan won the game with three balls to spare, there was no exaggerated uproar in the celebration, but rather a quiet fist bump after a surreal game of cricket.
“We are very simple people, ma’am, and we will live our lives the same way,” says Krishan Pal. “My father was a farmer, so whatever his principles and thoughts in life are, we live by them even today. Rahul also remains the same, there is no change. When he returns home, we stay in a family Together, the family gets together and spends time together. He has worked so hard and spent all his time playing cricket. When he got the chance, we knew he would click. And he won’t stop. He will definitely wear the blue jersey from here on. We always believed in the “.
A game can change lives and in a country where the population swears by cricket, the hasmukh ladka rose from oblivion to one that will be talked about for a long time. Not overnight, but in the span of just five balls.
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