IPL 2022: Rahul Tewatia sold to Gujarat Titans for ₹9 crore

Rahul Tewatia caused an intense bidding war in the mega-auction [Image- BCCI/IPLT20]

Spin-bowling all-rounder Rahul Tewatia triggered an insane bidding war in the ongoing IPL mega-auction, with the new Ahmedabad franchise Gujarat Titans eventually claiming his services for a staggering sum of 9 crores.

Tewatia had registered himself at a base price of just 40 lakhs and ended up getting up 21.5% times more thanks to an intense bidding war between Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and eventual winners Gujarat Titans.

The bidding was initiated by the MS Dhoni-led CSK before the Challengers joined the party. An intense round of back and forth between CSK and RCB took the bidding amount to 2 crores.

It was at this point that RCB were replaced by the Titans, leading to yet another round of bids between the latter and Chennai.

The back-and-forth finally ended with Gujarat's bid of 9 crores. The extent to which teams went to get the services of Tewatia left everyone baffled. However, it once again highlighted the complex dynamics of a mega-auction.

Rahul Tewatia featured for the Rajasthan Royals in the previous seasons

Tewatia rose to fame during the 2020 season of the cash-rich league. He scripted an unbelievable heist against the Punjab Kings to lead the Rajasthan Royals to a record-breaking win in Sharjah.

In that game, Tewatia was promoted up the order but the southpaw struggled to time the ball even as Sanju Samson smashed it into all corners.

Tewatia managed just 8 runs off his first 19 deliveries and it eventually cost Rajasthan the wicket of Samson. The right-hander fell in pursuit of making up for the lack of runs on the other end.

However, in a sensational turn of events, the southpaw launched an assault for the ages against Sheldon Cottrell and Chris Jordan to finish with a 31-ball 53. RR successfully overhauled the record target of 224 runs.

Tewatia won one more game for his side in the 2020 season against Sunrisers Hyderabad. The performances even earned him a maiden call-up to the national team.

Rahul had a poor campaign last year as he managed just 155 runs at a strike rate of 105.45 and just 8 wickets at 42.50.