Harshal Patel’s career has taken a dramatic turn over the past one year after the Royal Challengers Bangalore bowler finished the 14th season of IPL with a record-equalling 32 wickets in his kitty and winning the purple cap in the process. Ultimately, he went on to make his India debut as well.
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However, his journey to the top hasn’t been a cakewalk. Harshal faced his share of rejections and disappointments.
Recently during a chat with cricket presenter Gaurav Kapur on his popilar YouTube Show ‘Breakfast with Champions’, Harshal opened up about how he felt cheated and betrayed during the IPL 2018 auction.
In his first stint for the RCB franchise, the 31-year-old spent 6 years playing for the team but couldn’t quite make an impact and then in 2018, Harshal moved to Delhi Capitals at his base price of Rs 20 lakh.
Before the auction though, he revealed that 3-4 franchises promised that they were going to bif for him. However, it turned out that apart from Delhi’s solidarity bid, no one else wanted his services- which for the cricketer was “a betrayal”.
Harshal said, “It felt like a betrayal, yeh toh jhooth bole hain, dhokha hua hai mere saath [they’ve lied to me, I feel cheated],
He shared that at the time he was just in “a spiral of dark thoughts – ‘Who are you? You’ve given so much to this game and worked so hard’ and this and that.”
Delhi played Harshal in five matches, and he was able to scalp seven wickets. Due to some impressive all-round performances during the domestic season of 2019-20, Harshal was retained by the franchise. But his appearances were limited to just five matches in IPL 2020.
Ahead of IPL 2021, he was traded to RCB, which turned out to be a career-changing moment for him. Though RCB did not retain him ahead of the mega auction this year, they bought him back from the auction window for a whopping sum of Rs. 10.75 crore.
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