IPL 2020: All eyes on Rahul Tewatia once again

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Bengaluru, September 30: As an in-form Rajasthan Royals are set to take on Kolkata Knight Riders in Match 12 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday (September 30), Rahul Tewatia will be the cynsore of all eyes once again.

Royals all-rounder Tewatia scored a match-defining 31-ball 53 against Kings XI Punjab, in which he clobbered West Indies' left-arm paceman Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over.

In a token appreciation of his breathtaking heroics, Rajasthan Royals even changed its Twitter bio to pay tribute to the 27-year-old.

"Hoping 2020 does a Rahul Tewatia," reads Royals' new bio, perhaps a reflection of the current times with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic having had a bad impact on the global economy as a whole.

Picked in the squad primarily as a leg-spinner, Tewatia was promoted up the order to No.4 with the team needing 124 runs from 11 overs.

After his initial struggles, with 51 runs needed off three overs, Tewatia changed gears suddenly as Royals made the highest run chase (224) in IPL history at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Sunday (September 27) night.

HIGHEST RUN CHASES IN IPL

"I realised that if they are sending me up the order, they have belief in me. It was also an opportunity to prove myself," Tewatia said in the post-match virtual press conference.

Riding on a new wave of confidence, Tewatia is ready for the big stage as he is enjoying his promotion up the order in batting.

"They sent me at number four and the plan was to simply take on the bowlers. I knew my role clearly because it was discussed with me before the tournament started," he added.

From the beginning, I was trying to bat as per the required run rate but I wasn't able to initially hit the ball well.

"But I knew that once I could start hitting big, we would get closer to our target. So it happened in that over I could hit the first six and the rest of the sixes kept coming," added Tewatia.

Well as the tournament progresses, more of such sixes should keep coming for sure!