XtraTime Web Desk: The weird celebrations of Rajasthan Royals leg spinner Rahul Tewatia was more the talking point on social media rather than his crucial breakthroughs against Chennai Super Kings during the IPL 2020 match at the Sharjah Stadium on Tuesday. The 29 year old leg spinner from Haryana spun a web against the CSK batsmen picking three crucial wickets to help Rajasthan Royals post a comfortable win over last year’s runners up. And every time he picked a wicket so far in this IPL, he was seen putting his fingers in his ears as if not giving attention to the crowd’s reaction.
It is well established fact that the Indian Premier League has been a solid platform for uncapped cricketers over the years. The tournament has unearthed many domestic talents and some of the players have later gone on to represent India, the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer and Hardik Pandya are perfect examples.
Leg-spinner Rahul Tewatia is one such talent from Haryana. An old school leggie, Tewatia likes to flight the ball rather than going quicker through the air. He is an extremely handy lower order batsman too, who can score some quick runs playing the long handle. He is tailor made for this format. That was the reason he was one of the surprise packages of the 2018 Indian Premier League auctions, when he was picked by Delhi Capitals for a whopping 3 crore .
Tewatia made his IPL debut in 2014 for Rajasthan Royals. He was picked by Kings XI Punjab in 2016. During his stay with Punjab, he played a crucial role in his side’s win against KKR. He picked up the crucial wickets of Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir to help Kings stay afloat in the tournament.
After spending a couple of seasons with Delhi Capitals, Tewatia is back with his former franchise. In that sense it was a bit of second home coming for him as well.
Tewatia has appeared in 48 domestic T20 matches scoring 628 runs along with 30 wickets. As far as his IPL records are concerned, since making his debut against KKR at Sardar Patel Stadium in 2014, Tewatia has taken 17 wickets from 21 matches at an average of 23.00. With Shreyas Gopal and Mayank Markande in the side as well, it augurs well for Steve Smith led Rajasthan Royals side this season as far as healthy competition is concerned.