Rahul Tewatia’s explosive batting in the ongoing IPL 2020 may have come as a surprise to many but those who have played with him for long know what he is capable of.
Tewatia played with a fractured foot in a Dehradun Gold Cup tournament, immediately after last year’s IPL for his office team and smashed 197 against a strong Food Corporation of India (FCI) team that included the likes of Rishi Dhawan, who has played for the national team.
Praveen Thapar, who is a former Delhi Ranji player and captains the Income Tax Department team that Tewatia plays for, told IANS: “He (Tewatia) was hit by a yorker on the right foot during a game and suffered a hairline fracture. Our next match was against FCI and he didn't want to play. He kept saying 'I can’t’.
“We insisted, saying he doesn't need to run but just bat. After much reluctance he went on to bat and struggled initially as it was painful. He took singles only when the ball went deep and didn’t take doubles.
“After the first five overs, when I went in, he said he couldn't continue. I told him to take it five overs at a time.
“He managed to get to his fifty and told me he couldn’t continue. I pressed on. With 50 in the basket, he changed gears, starting to play his shots. His second fifty came in just 15-20 deliveries. Once he reached 100 in the 22nd over, he said he couldn't continue as the pain got aggravated. But I asked him to try another five overs, and then another five overs. He carried on. Unfortunately, when he was on 197, he went for a scoop and was brilliantly caught at short fine-leg. The shot was certain to fetch him a four or a double but the fielder plucked it out of thin air,” added Thapar.
Thapar recalls another match played last year in December when Tewatia injured his hand during a tournament in Faridabad. The 27-year-old was struggling to bowl, with split webbing on little finger, but still bowled and picked three wickets, overshadowing better-known India players like Yuzvendra Chahal, Jayant Yadav and Aniket Chaudhary, who are his teammates at I-T department.
Thapar has seen Tewatia since he was 14 and also got him to play for Delhi’s Malviya Club.
“We’d use him at the top of the batting and he knew how to exploit the field restrictions.”